On May 7, 2021, fans will be treated to the release of the highly-anticipated album The Marfa Tapes from Miranda Lambert and her songwriting partners Jon Randall and Jack Ingram. Just one day later, we will get to experience what it was like writing and recording the album in the trio’s The Marfa Tapes Film, which will premiere on Facebook.
Announcing The Marfa Tapes Film. A really raw and intimate journey through the making of our record, #TheMarfaTapes. Premieres May 8th on Facebook.
Set a reminder to watch here: https://t.co/XjfHhY9cyd pic.twitter.com/iOxrfbqeBF— Miranda Lambert (@mirandalambert) April 29, 2021
The album features 15 tracks, and they have already made five available to listen to, including a new version of “Tin Man.”
The latest song they released is a tune called “Geraldene, ” which Ingram, Lambert, and Randall performed on The Ellen Show this week.
A cowboy hat-clad Miranda Lambert sat between Randall and Ingram for the performance where they all played acoustic guitar. Lambert performed lead vocals, singing essentially a response song to Dolly Parton’s iconic 1974 song “Jolene,” which Parton wrote about a bank teller trying to “take care of my husband while I was out on the road.”
Parton explains in this 1988 performance that she went to confront the bank teller and they got into a fight! “Jolene” almost beat her to death with her own wig!
In “Geraldene,” Lambert sings from the point of view of Jolene and the wife is Geraldene. She sings, “You’re trailer park pretty but you’re never gonna be Jolene,” before diving into the chorus:
“Geraldene, Geraldene / Why you gotta be so mean? / Don’t make me cause a scene now, Geraldene / Geraldene, Geraldene / You got ’em all on their knees / But you can’t take a man from me, Geraldene.”
While Lambert, Randall, and Ingram haven’t yet come out and and said “Geraldene” is a response song to “Jolene,” it’ll only take you one listen to figure out that it is!
Watch their performance on Ellen below.