Mama's Broken Heart

Album

Four the Record

Label

RCA Records Nashville

Genre

Country rock

Composer(s)

Brandy Clark;Shane McAnally;Kacey Musgraves

Entered Chart

Feb 9, 2013

Peak Date

Apr 27, 2013

Released

January 14, 2013

Recorded

2011

Catalog #

RCA Nashville Digital

Lambert previewed this Four The Record track during her September 8, 2011 performance at the Hulman Center on the Indiana State University campus. "The reason I love this song is because it's about how sometimes when you get your heart broken, you kinda go a little bit crazy," she confessed. "You drink too much, you smoke too much, you cut your hair... you find a rebound. Sometimes your mama, if she's like my mama, has to slap you around and say, 'Straighten up girl!'" This Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and Kasey Musgraves penned song finds Lambert re-visiting the unhinged-by-a-broken-heart territory she previously sung of on cuts like "Kerosene" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." "I have that angst naturally," she told Billboard magazine. "I always lean toward a sad song or an angry song more than a love song, but now that I am happy and in love and married, I can have the perspective of both." Lambert nearly didn't get to cut this tune. She knew Kacey Musgraves from her days back in Texas, and they used to write together a lot. The pair went their separate ways, but Musgraves reappeared on Lambert's radar after her appearances on Nashville Star. The country star explained. "I don't think I was supposed to be pitched the song, but her sister actually shot some pictures at mine and Blake's wedding, and she was there, too. At our rehearsal dinner, I went over and asked her, I was like, 'Are you gonna cut this song, or can I have it?' And she was like, 'I'll think about it for a couple of days.'" Musgraves granted her wish... with some strings attached. "She e-mailed me, and said, 'You can have it, if I can sing harmony,'" said Lambert. "So that's her singin' the harmonies on it - and actually, Kacey Musgraves, she has a new single out called 'Merry Go 'Round' so she's doin' great on her own now, but I had to actually beg for this song, and so I'm thankful that she gave it to me 'cause I love 'Mama's Broken Heart.'" The recording of Four The Record came right on the heels of Lambert's short honeymoon after marrying Blake Shelton. She went into the studio just a week after her wedding. Her goal was to have everything lined up and have the songs picked out for the album before the nuptials. It was a close run thing as it was at Lambert's rehearsal dinner that she persuaded Musgraves to allow her to cut this song, without which she felt she couldn't make the album. Brandy Clark told Radio.com that when Shane McAnally came into the writing session with her and Kacey Musgraves he had an idea to write a song called "Ain't Your Mama's" something, like "Ain't Your Mama's Saturday Night." "I always love when people say that, so I gravitated to that, and I think that's probably why he saved it for a day when I was in the room," she recalled. "His sister was going through this awful breakup, and his mom didn't like the way she was dealing with it, so he was telling us that story that day. Somebody, I don't even remember who said, 'Well maybe it could be that, 'Ain't Your Mama's Broken Heart.' I remember for a while we all thought maybe that was a little too plain of an idea, but we wrote it." Clark further explained how Musgraves transformed the song after their writing session. "That night, Kacey went home and put another guitar on it and some hand claps and did some really cool things, and sent it to us, and it was like a different song," she said. "It was like, 'Wow. This is really special.' And that's what Miranda heard - or her A&R person heard that. Then Miranda wanted to cut it, and she and Kacey made a deal. Kacey sang on it, and Miranda recorded it. And the rest is history." This won the 2014 ACM Award for Single Record of the Year. It was Lambert's third win in four years in the category, having taken home the top prize in 2011 for "The House That Built Me" and in 2013 for "Over You." Lambert also won the Best Female Vocalist award for the fifth time in a row and shared the Vocal Event of the Year honour with Keith Urban for "We Were Us."

I cut my bangs with some rusty kitchen scissors
I screamed his name 'til the neighbors called the cops
I numbed the pain at the expense of my liver
Don't know what I did next all I know, I couldn't stop

Word got around to the barflies and the Baptists
My mama's phone started ringin' off the hook
I can hear her now sayin' she ain't gonna have it
Don't matter how you feel, it only matters how you look

Go and fix your make up girl it's, just a break up run an'
Hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady 'cause I
Raised ya better, gotta keep it together even when you fall apart
But this ain't my mama's broken heart

I wish I could be just a little less dramatic like a
Kennedy when Camelot went down in flames
Leave it to me to be holdin' the matches
When the fire trucks show up and there's nobody else to blame

Can't get revenge and keep a spotless reputation
Sometimes revenge is a choice you gotta make
My mama came from a softer generation
Where you get a grip and bite your lip just to save a little face

Go and fix your make up girl it's, just a break up run an'
Hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady 'cause I
Raised ya better, gotta keep it together even when you fall apart
But this ain't my mama's broken heart

Powder your nose, paint your toes line your lips and keep 'em closed
Cross your legs, dot your I's and never let 'em see you cry

Go and fix your make up well it's, just a break up run an'
Hide your crazy and start actin' like a lady 'cause I
Raised ya better, gotta keep it together even when you fall apart
But this ain't my mama's broken heart