Marfa: Miranda Lambert and The Marfa Tapes

Marfa sits in the high Chihuahuan Desert of Far West Texas, a small city known for minimalist art installations, the mystery lights that appear on the horizon at night, and a particular quality of open space that makes people want to make things. Artists have been making things in Marfa since Donald Judd arrived in the 1970s. But in the fall of 2020, the thing being made around a campfire was country music.

Miranda Lambert traveled to Marfa toward the end of 2020 with two longtime friends and collaborators: songwriter Jon Randall and country singer Jack Ingram. They had been writing songs together since July 2015 — fifteen tracks accumulated over six years. Marfa was where those songs finally became a record.

Two Microphones

They recorded with just two microphones and two acoustic guitars. No studio. No overdubs. One-take recordings that kept the mistakes, the pauses, the sound of the campfire, and the sound of the desert at night. Pitchfork called the result “like a vacation on record, like eavesdropping on a perfect musical friendship.” Variety asked whether it might be Lambert’s best work so far.

The Marfa Tapes was released on May 7, 2021. The songs — “Tin Man,” “Am I Right or Amarillo,” “Geraldene,” “Waxahachie” — feel stripped of everything country radio usually requires, leaving just the songwriting. Three tracks were later re-recorded with full production for Lambert’s 2022 album Palomino. A companion film premiered on her Facebook page, featuring additional songs recorded around that same Marfa campfire.

Marfa had been hosting minimalist art for decades. Stripped-down country music made from campfire songs fit the place exactly.