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\n\tThe image fit. \u201cA Song to Sing\u201d uses musical elements that exist in the same sonic pocket as the Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton classic \u201cIslands in the Stream.\u201d That single was produced by Barry Gibb, whose band The Bee Gees played a key role in the late-1970s disco era. The Brothers Gibb\u2019s most iconic songs from that period \u2013 \u201cIslands,\u201d \u201cNight Fever,\u201d \u201cJive Talkin\u2019,\u201d \u201cStayin\u2019 Alive\u201d \u2013 invariably featured sticky melodies, bittersweet harmonies, dogged optimism and sometimes-abstract lyrics over compellingly light dance beats.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA Song to Sing,\u201d like \u201cIslands in the Stream,\u201d has all of those characteristics. \u201cIt\u2019s, like, all the stuff that I\u2019ve always loved,\u201d Lambert says. \u201cI\u2019ve just never explored it as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe bones of \u201cA Song to Sing\u201d were grounded in the supporting parts. In 2023, songwriter Jesse Frasure (\u201cPark,\u201d \u201cDirt on My Boots\u201d) reached out to fiddler Jenee Fleenor, a five-time winner of the Country Music Association\u2019s musician of the year award, about creating some musical beds that he could present during writing sessions.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s actually something I\u2019d always wanted to do,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t know who to approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey met a couple times and created 8-10 musical tracks in a variety of styles, with Fleenor playing riffs on her fiddle over chord progressions that Frasure supplied. One began with a major-seventh chord \u2013 used frequently in \u201870s pop songs \u2013 and Fleenor gave it an arching, nine-note melody in the intro and at the end of the prospective choruses.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt came to its full fruition during a writing appointment Lambert booked at Frasure\u2019s studio in Nashville\u2019s Crieve Hall neighborhood. They reached out to Stapleton on short notice, not knowing if he was even in town, and he agreed to meet them. Neither artist was at work on a specific album, so the crew had plenty of freedom to pursue whatever struck them.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe pulled up, he was driving a Corvette \u2014 like a rust, \u201870s-looking, brown Corvette that day \u2014 so it was kind of fitting,\u201d Frasure remembers. \u201cWe had wrote another song that probably sounds more like what you would expect Miranda and Chris to do, and then right before he was leaving, I just kind of played him that [\u201870s-sounding track].\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStapleton stayed. This track was too inspiring to quit, and they spent the next hour turning it into a full-fledged song. \u201cThere was certainly some mention of Dolly and Kenny vibes,\u201d Stapleton says. \u201cIt had that vibe out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe opening major-seventh chord set the tone. Someone \u2013 no one remembers who, for certain \u2013 started a melody that played on its key feature, vacillating between the tonic note and the dissonant seventh (akin to alternating between \u201cti\u201d and \u201cdo\u201d in \u201cDo-Re-Mi,\u201d the Sound of Music<\/em> song about musical scales). They came up with hazy lyrics that drew on the commitment required to maintain a relationship with their traveling lifestyles. The two singers traded lead parts, slipped in harmonies, and built to an ascendent chorus that compared romance to writing a song. \u201cA Song to Sing\u201d showed itself as the title, though it was positioned, unconventionally, in the middle of the chorus.<\/p>\n\n\tInstead of following that chorus with a second verse, Stapleton segued into a new, rising melody along with a lyric about overcoming \u201ceverything heavy on our shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe talked about it in the room,\u201d Lambert recalls. \u201c\u2019Do we need a bridge? Do we not?\u2019 And then just hearing Chris go, \u2018And when this world\u2026,\u2019 it\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, we need a bridge if that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to sound like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLambert sat in a blue velvet chair and Stapleton stood in a corner as they dashed off vocals for the demo before they wrapped. Fleenor had picked up her engraved CMA award that same day and announced the debut EP for her bluegrass group Wood Box Heroes. She was stunned to receive a text from Frasure announcing that Lambert and Stapleton had just written a song based on their track.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere was no second verse when they sent me the demo,\u201d she says. \u201cI dug it, but I remember Jesse and I having this conversation because the song was so short, and I think Jesse encouraged them to write a second verse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFrasure got Lambert and Stapleton back together a few weeks later to knock it out.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI just wanted to hear that [opening] chord \u2013 maybe it\u2019s the major seventh there \u2013 but I wanted to hear that first melody again,\u201d Frasure says.<\/p>\n
\n\tSometime in 2024, Lambert and Stapleton went to Savannah, Ga., to record \u201cA Song To Sing\u201d with Stapleton\u2019s band and producer Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, John Prine) in leisurely fashion at the Georgia Mae Studio.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s on the intercoastal waterways, so it\u2019s kind of like an escapism house that we started making records in,\u201d Cobb says. \u201cWe just got out there and, Gilligan Island<\/em> it, and stayed in kind of a little private setting on the water, which is really beautiful and calming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tBassist J.T. Cure and drummer Derek Mixon locked into a steady, deep groove. \u201cJ.T. has so much soul and feel,\u201d Cobb says. \u201cHe\u2019s kind of [like Motown\u2019s] James Jamerson and all these great players, where he\u2019s really making a bass part, and not just towing the line. He\u2019s really individualistic with it. And Derek just has such a beautiful swagger and pocket. I think that\u2019s what you hear with the combination of people, just turning off the math of it all, and just feeling the heart of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThey revised Fleenor\u2019s fiddle riff as a combination of sounds \u2013 Lambert and Stapleton singing along with a guitar and keyboard, though no one can recall which parts they kept in the blend. Lambert felt vocally challenged by Stapleton, and dialed up an edgy, soulful quality.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cSinging with Chris, you have to be so powerful,\u201d she says. \u201cCountry music just bleeds out of my pores. But this song, with the soul part of it, how the melody goes and how soulful Chris is, I was like, \u2018All right, I gotta step up and really find some other places to go in my voice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLambert leaned on Morgane Stapleton as they developed some of the harmonies, and Frasure\u2019s wife, Stevie Frasure, provided high harmonies in a separate session. The final step came when engineer Tom Elmhirst, affiliated with New York\u2019s Electric Lady Studios, mixed it this year. \u201cA Song To Sing\u201d fit both artists\u2019 single patterns, and following its July release, it\u2019s at No. 33 on the Country Airplay chart dated Aug. 23, providing a joyful counterweight to a rancorous time in American life.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of great things in the world, and I think if we concentrate on the things that are only heavy all the time, that\u2019s all we\u2019ll ever see,\u201d Stapleton notes. \u201cThat\u2019s what songs are for. It\u2019s supposed to be one of those reminders that, \u2018Hey, there are still good things, and we can enjoy those things.\u2019 Even if they\u2019re three minutes long.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Big Loud released \u201cA Song to Sing\u201d to country radio on July 10, the email featured a gold, heart-shaped mirror ball with the names of Miranda Lambert and Chris Stapleton blasting from the background in a groovy retro font. Explore See latest videos, charts and news The image fit. \u201cA Song to Sing\u201d uses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1978867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[309228],"class_list":["post-1978866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-genre-country"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Chris-Stapleton-Miranda-Lamberts-A-Song-to-Sing-Song.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1978867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}