09/14/2006 08:03:24 PM MDT

Texas roots let singer branch out her way
Miranda Lambert's rising appeal is partly the product of her against-the-grain push to define herself and to compose her own songs

If you know anyone raised in Texas, you know the pride Lone Star staters have in everything from their football to their barbecue to their awesome music scene.

Rising country star Miranda Lambert is certainly proud of her Texas roots as well, starting her career with years of Texas talent contests and honky-tonk gigs before getting her big break on the first season of "Nashville Star." She finished third in the countrified "American Idol" knock-off among more than 8,000 challengers.

But even though some of her favorite songwriters are Texans - folks such as Guy Clark and Jerry Jeff Walker - Lambert always knew she wanted to be more than just Texas-big.

"There are a lot of songwriters, and that's why I really loved growing up there," Lambert said. "It's really encouraging to write songs; that's what everybody does. But you can also put yourself in a category, and that scared me. My whole goal was to get out of Texas . . . and go national. A lot of people get so stuck in their 'Texas thing' that they almost shoot themselves in the foot by being so 'Texas.'
"You can make a good living there, don't get me wrong, just doing that. But I was never one of those people who said, 'Nashville sucks!' or that whoever goes there is selling out. I don't think it's selling out at all. We're just getting our music out to the rest of the people."

Lambert's been getting her music out to the people in massive numbers since landing on "Nashville Star" in early 2003 and signing a major-label deal in September that same year. And make no mistake about it - the music filling Lambert's hit debut album, "Kerosene," is her music. She wrote or co-wrote 11 of the 12 songs on "Kerosene," mostly between the ages of 17 and 20 when she was playing gigs around Dallas, about 80 miles from her small hometown of Lindale.

Anyone paying attention to country music knows that most of the biggest stars don't write their own material, let alone newcomers just getting their feet wet in Nashville. But Lambert said that was the only kind of record deal she was interested in, and she let the powers that be know that at every turn of the negotiations.

Just as remarkable is the fact that Lambert did not encounter many people trying to turn the young blonde into a country-pop starlet instead of the rootsy, old-school country type she naturally is. But she did have to battle to be taken seriously from the start.
"What was hard was being a young, blond chick in Texas music. There weren't any others and I was alone out there," Lambert said. "That was hard because this whole business is a man's world, it really is, and especially when you're just starting out.
"I had to fight to prove myself to people and be like, 'Hey, I do have something to say. Just listen. Don't stereotype me just because I have blond hair. I'm not going to get up there and sing some crap. I have something to say.' "

With the success of "Kerosene" and a new album on the way in early 2007, Lambert should have plenty of time to get her music heard.