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Miranda Lambert, 'They've Closed Down The Honky Tonks'

Over five days last November, collaborators Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall recorded their album The Marfa Tapes in the small town of Marfa, Texas. And though "They've Closed Down the Honky Tonks" doesn't appear on that collection, the track finds Lambert in Marfa Tapes mode. As on that record, "Honky Tonks" is an aching acoustic affair; produced by Randall, it's a lament to what was lost during the quietude of quarantine. As cities and states across the country continue to reopen, it feels surreal to think back on dimmed neon lights and quiet jukeboxes – especially as Lambert opens her own Nashville honky-tonk spot (Miranda Lambert's Casa Rosa, in case you're curious). But, even just a few bars in, the imagery of locked doors, neon lights that have ceased to buzz, sawdust-covered floors swept clean and classic songs echoing through empty bars hits with the power of a gut-wrenching flashback.

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