Miranda Lambert emerged from the pack of country music newbies with an energetic, electrifying performance of "Kerosene," the title track of her debut disc at the 2005 Country Music Association awards show. With columns of fire shooting off about the stage, her career took off.

But that was then, and now the Texas native who first gained acclaim for being a finalist on Nashville Star in its first year will see if her brand of honky tonkers and aggressive country can take off again with the release of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."

"It's kind of split down the middle," says Lambert about the pressures she feels in round two during a telephone interview from Jacksonville, Fla. while on a concert tour a few weeks before the CD drops. "I feel pressure because 'Kerosene' was successful, and now I have expectations to live up to, but on the other side of that, I'm also comfortable in the fact 'Kerosene' went platinum. So, that means a million people are liking what I'm doing, so that gives (me) a little more faith in this record."

A few aspects of "Crazy" are similar to "Kerosene." The sound is not all that different with Lambert's strong, vibrant, take no prisoners voice dominating.

"I was just trying to still do everything that I did on 'Kerosene.' I used the same producers (Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke) and the same musicians. I mean I did keep everything the same. Why change it if it works?" says Lambert. "I don't feel pressure about necessarily the music, but about people's expectations about the record."

Lambert, 23, also says she was ready to push new music. "I'm a little nervous, but I'm also so excited because I've been singing the songs off 'Kerosene' for three years now, and I'm ready to move on from that and get my new music out there. I've grown a lot as an artist in the last couple of years, and I want to show that."

Lambert wrote 8 of the 11 songs on the disc, including 4 with Travis Howard and 1 with Heather Little, both of whom she wrote with on "Kerosene." Lambert also picked three songs from ace singers and songwriters - "Dry Town" by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, "Getting Ready" by Patty Griffin and the closing "Easy From Now On" by Carlene Carter and Susanna Clark," a song cut by Emmylou Harris.

On her debut, Lambert wrote all but one song, unusual for a new artist.

"As far as writing goes, I feel I've really lived a lot more in the last few years. When I was writing 'Kerosene,' I was 17, and I didn't have that much to write about obviously. I've been through relationships both professionally and personally. I make good decisions and bad ones and learn from both. I think you can hear that in my voice and in my writing."

Wrucke says, "She's pretty involved in her music. She's not someone who you find a bunch of songs, and she sings them. A huge part of her artistry (is) writing."

"She's got a direction," he says. "She's not holding back - she goes for it. She's not scared, and that's pretty rare."

Lambert opts for story songs in the first four cuts: "Gunpowder & Lead," "Dry Town," the first single "Famous in a Small Town" and the title track.

Drinking and loving are ever part of the songs, and it isn't always so pretty as tends to be the case in many country songs nowadays.

"I didn't plan on writing any specific songs for this record at all. I just wrote what I felt. There are story songs. I have more story songs than I did on "Kerosene,' and that comes from life's experience."

"Gunpowder & Lead" is written from the perspective of a woman waiting for her man to get out of jail and giving it to him.

Lambert penned the song with Little, a fellow resident of Lindale, Texas, who actually lives in a house once home to Lambert. The two wrote "Me and Charlie Talking" on "Kerosene." "I went over to her house. She kind of had the first part written. We really couldn't decide what to call the song. We had 'I'm going to show you what a little girls made of,' but we didn't really have that punch line. I was in (a concealed handgun) class, and I actually wrote the rest of the song...in my concealed handgun class, which sounds like I made it up...It's kind of funny how that came about."

"Famous" is about living the small town life where everyone knows your business, while the title track makes it clear it's not about some fly on the wall chick.

Lambert was born in Longview, Texas, but moved to Lindale, a town about 80 miles east of Dallas when she was 6.

"I would describe it exactly as the song," Lambert says of Lindale, population 3,000. "Everything that happens in that song is true. If they want to understand small town life, they can just pick up my record and listen to 'Famous in a Small Town.'"

"I would not trade it for the world. Growing up in a small town is really cool now, especially with what I'm doing. When I come, they're really proud of me. They have my posters in the stores. The whole town supports me, but they still treat me as Miranda from first grade."

While many artists may grow up in small town, U.S.A. and move to Nashville to get their break or be closer to the action, that's not the case for Lambert, who lives in Lindale when she's off the road.

"That's my only home besides the tour bus."

"That's one of the reasons I moved back there...I want to go home and see my family and my friends. Being on the road all the time, I didn't really feel Nashville was really home because it's not where my family is and not where I grew up."

"I really do like the feel when I go home, I'm not Miranda Lambert at that time. I'm just Miranda, and I kind of recharge my batteries. I can really just be me...because I don't think about the (music) business."

And while she did not pen "Dry Town," Lambert says the song rings true for her because Lindale is dry.

"Thirty miles to the nearest beer store from where I live. It really hit home. I knew I wanted to put it on the record one day. As soon as we started talking about the new one, I found that song again, and I still really loved it. Being a songwriter, I feel it's one of those songs, when I cut someone else's songs, I want to feel like I could have written it, and that's definitely one of those."

The title track - written with Howard, who also was on Nashville Star circa 2003, the same year as Lambert - was the first song from the disc that country radio listeners heard. But the song was never released as the single. It also was not supposed to be such a kick ass song lyrically.

"I write about real situations. Everything in my songs is obviously not true. It's like a movie, a little mini play and one of those fun things...When we play it live, it's sort of become an anthem." Lambert has been playing the song in concert at least since January when she was opening shows for Toby Keith.

"I started writing it as 'Favorite Ex-Girlfriend,' a sort of a sweet song. Then I realized it really wasn't me. I was writing for my own record. I said what about 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,' and it changed the whole vibe of the song immediately. It was really fun to write."

The sound of the song also "changed a little bit. We picked it up a couple of notches," says Lambert.

This time around, Lambert also wrote three songs by her lonesome, including the tender country ballad "Love Letters," which she describes as "an old school country song." Lambert indicates she had little choice but to include it - the song was her grandmother's favorite. "This is a song that really shows I have really strong country roots," Lambert says. "It's an old school country song, and I did write it by myself, and that matters a lot to me."

"I think I really opened up a lot more than I did on 'Kerosene.' My fans are ready for that. It is a little scary to throw your emotions out there like that especially when I write the songs by myself. I can't blame it on anybody else. I was really honest and open with 'Kerosene,' and a million people bought it, so that give some faith that they'll hopefully do it for this album as well."

As for writing solo or with others, Lambert doesn't care. "I like to do both ways. I don't ever want to use co-writing as a crutch. I always want to be able to write by myself. I try to do it as much as I can."

"I don't think it happens near enough any more like it used to. Everybody co-writes. In Nashville, it's the kind of way people do things."

"It's a personal goal of mine to always write by myself and as well as (have) co-writers. I don't do it with strangers or just make appointments and go into a room with people I have never met. I really like to write with people I've had relationships with."

"You don't want to give someone you don't know your best ideas. You don't want to throw out your most raw emotions to someone you don't know."

Lambert closes the disc with "Easy From Now On," with Emmylou Harris' version the touchstone for Lambert. The song is about a woman going on her own without a man.

"I'm just a huge huge fan of Emmylou Harris and always have been. That was one of my favorite songs of hers. At the last minute, I told my producer Frank, 'what do you think about cutting this song?'...He was like, 'might as well. Let's see how it turns out.' It's really scary to cut a song. People always say if you cover an artist, you better do it better than the original, or don't do it at all."

"The song really really speaks to me as an artist. I feel I portray that in my version of it. It's still nerve-wracking to have someone that's one of your heroes and cover one of their songs. I don't think that feeling will ever go away."

"It just got a good message. It's being a strong woman. It's right in the title I feel she sort of realizes the situation the girl in the song and stuck with it and moved on. Plus it's just a beautiful song."

Lambert was influenced by her father, Rick, who played music growing up and has written with his daughter. She may have gotten a song idea or two from his day job - being an undercover narcotics cop for the Dallas police and now a private detective.

He was with a band called Contraband, which played on flatbed trucks with Miranda tagging along. As a kid, she sang in talent shows at school and received her first guitar at 14 courtesy of her father.

However, the future singer was not all that interested in a music career. She listened to pop like Mariah Carey and country.

What changed her life was entering a Tru-Valu talent search in 2000. She won 2 rounds at age 16, but the spark was lit. The Lamberts hit Nashville a few times to attend Fan Fair.

Lambert quickly learned about writing songs and recorded a pop country demo. That's hard to believe because Lambert's sound through her albums (one released by herself and the two on Sony) bear no resemblance to pop. Lambert realized that wasn't her style either.

She recorded her own country disc for a few grand and played throughout Texas with her band, Texas Pride. Lambert was still in high school, but graduated early in an accelerated program to concentrate on music and make money on the road.

Nashville Star soon became the launching pad. A family friend recommended that she enter, but Lambert had no interest at first. She did enter it though - twice. She made the mistake of singing a Shania Twain song, which was not her style, in Dallas. But in Houston, she nailed "Crazy," and Lambert hit the highway for Nashville.

Buddy Jewell ended up winning the inaugural competition, but Lambert and others in the industry say it was just as well that she didn't win. The thinking was that at 19, she was not ready to release an album and needed seasoning.

"Kerosene" received good reviews, but it wasn't until Lambert's performance on the awards show that her career went into high gear. She toured with Keith Urban and George Strait, valuable experiences for Lambert along with dates this year with Dierks Bentley and Keith.

"Every tour is different," says Lambert. "The first tour with Keith Urban was the first tour I ever did. That really opened my eyes to the entertainment part of it because his show is just amazing. He's a rock star. When you're opening, you can't stand and sing and play your guitar. You have to put on a show. That really helped my stage presence."

"I take something different from every tour. What I took from George Strait is relationships. He's got people who have been working with him for 20 years. In this business, it's so flighty, and you can't trust people. He's got good people he could trust. I'd love to have that as well."

Lambert is currently touring with Bentley. "He's really smart, and he really handles his business well. It's his first headlining tour. There are some venues where we don't sell that many tickets, and he doesn't let it discourage him at all. He knows he's moving up. I really respect the decisions he makes."

Lambert makes it clear she's not a big fan of what she hears from a portion of today's country artists. "I don't really like the feel good country music. I think it got really got out of hand. For a couple of years, everybody was putting out feel good music. I just don't think that's what country music is about for the most part. It started out with Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, all the heroes singing about cheating and drinking and being in prison. That's what country music is about - the real stuff. That's the music I listen to, and therefore I write about real situations."

"A lot of days, even in my job, I have a great job. I get to do what I love for a living, but some days just suck. I don't think on those days, I want to hear about how great things are. Most people have bad days. I would rather hear a song about someone else having a bad day when I am than someone talking about how great their life is all the time. I don't know. It just doesn't appeal to me."

Despite the apparent negativity of some of the songs, Lambert thinks there is a silver lining. "With me, it's more of a message. I think the story about both of my albums would just be about strength. I write about love, but even in my most vulnerable songs, I think it takes strength to admit you're vulnerable and to admit you're hurt. Just about being a strong woman is the thread of my writing and my records."

"As a songwriter, I like songs personally to listen to that make me think. To me, a successful song is bringing out an emotion in somebody, whether it's taking them back to a happy time in their life or making them feel sad or any kind of emotion. That's what music is about...I like to listen to songs that make me think, and I guess that's why I record those kinds of songs."

And Lambert knows it's real hard to make a dent on the country charts with many songs hanging around for months in a difficult climate.

"I think it sucks. I really do. It's so hard to get a song up the chart these days. It has to be out there for 16 weeks before it's even top 40 sometimes. It takes forever. As far as record sales go, I'm a big iTunes (buyer). I buy records off iTunes every day. I think that's okay, but I miss the old days."

When the Dixie Chicks' "Wide Open Spaces" came out, Lambert recalled, "I was so excited. I was standing at Wal-Mart and waiting for them to put the record out to go on sale the day it came out, and I don't know that people do that any more. It's kind of sad. As an artist, I feel I'm really lucky. My highest song so far was 'Kerosene' and it was 15 on the charts, and I still sold a million copies... Without having a hit at all, people found out about me through videos and TV and all the press stuff that I've done."

"A lot of people have to have those number ones. Some people have numbers ones and don't sell hardly any records. I'd rather have it the way I have it. I'd love to have a hit on radio. I'm hoping this record will be the breakthrough for me. I'm just glad to be out there, and I'm glad I sold a million albums. So, that's all I can really say."