Tanya Tucker’s Cover of Miranda Lambert’s ‘The House That Built Me’ Is a Stunner [Listen]
Tanya Tucker has released a new cover of Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me," and she brings a completely different emotional energy to the familiar song about returning to one's roots.
Tucker dropped her new studio version of the Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin classic on Friday morning (Aug. 2), and she changes the story somewhat. Where Lambert imbued the song with the innocence of a younger woman returning to the home where she was raised, Tucker imparts a world-weary tone to the song, changing the perspective to that of an older woman who raised her kids in that house and is now returning to relive those times.
"I cut out pictures of houses for years / From 'Better Homes & Gardens' magazine / Plans were drawn. concrete poured / Nail by nail and board by board / But once the kids were grown, it was just too much for me," she sings in a re-written second verse, which sets up the stunning chorus that made the song into a mega-hit for Lambert when she released it as the third single from her third studio album, Revolution, in 2010.
"I thought if I could touch this place or feel it / This brokenness inside me might start healing / Out here it's like I'm someone else / I thought that maybe I could find myself / If I could just come in I swear I'll leave / I won't take nothing but a memory / From the house that built me," Tucker sings.
"The House That Built Me" gave Lambert her first No. 1 hit, and it went on to win CMA awards for Song and Video of the Year, ACM awards for Song, Single Record and Video of the Year and a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Tucker's cover of "The House That Built Me" is set to appear on her forthcoming new album, While I'm Livin', which is set for release on Aug. 23 via Fantasy Records. The collection marks her first new studio album since Tanya in 2002. She worked with producers Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings on the project, with Carlile and her longtime collaborators Phil and Tim Hanseroth providing most of the songs.
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