Country singer Miranda Lambert was a small-town girl with big musical dreams. Born in Lindale, Texas, Lambert is the daughter of country guitarist/songwriter David Lambert. She formed the Texas Pride Band while still in high school and released an independent self-titled album with the financial backing of her father. Two of the album's tracks, "Somebody Else" and "Texas Pride" actually made their way into the Texas charts. Several small time performances and television spots led to Lambert's big break as a finalist on the 2003 season of television series Nashville Star. Lambert saw her loss on the show as a blessing in disguise because while the winner would have recorded an album in record speed, losing the show allowed her more time to record her debut album. She wrote or co-wrote an astonishing 11 of the 12 tracks and continued to find her voice and polish her sound over the next two years.

In 2005, Miranda Lambert released her debut album Kerosene, produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke, after signing with Epic Records. Kerosene went nearly platinum, reaching the crowned number one spot on the Billboard Top Country Album Chart and number 18 on the Billboard 200 Chart. The album also earned Lambert nominations for the CMA's Horizon Award and the ACM's Top New Female Vocalist Award and was hailed as among the best country albums of the year. Propelled by her initial success, Lambert toured with Keith Urban and George Strait and perfected her on-stage persona and performance capabilities.

Rather than going in a different direction for her sophomore album, Lambert chose to make an extension of her wildly successful first effort, Kerosene, even choosing to record in the same studios and use the same producers. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, in which Lambert again took the writing reins and wrote or co-wrote most of the songs herself, was released in 2007 under Columbia Records. The album spiked to number six on the Billboard 200 Chart and scored the number one spot on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart.