"My songs talk about real things," says Miranda Lambert. "Things that I've been through or I've witnessed through my friends and family - even my parents' private investigation business. If I feel it, I can sing it and make anyone believe it."

Big talk from a small-town Texas girl, but Lambert's got the goods to back it up. The old-school passion and power of her nearly platinum-selling 2005 debut KEROSENE took it to the top of both the country charts and the critics' polls. Now the two-time CMA Horizon Award nominee returns with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, on which she raises the stakes both musically and emotionally.

"You can take each song on this album and compare it to the first record, and you can see that it's an upgrade," says Lambert. "It shows two years of growth. I also let people in a lot more than I did on the last record - so I'm a little scared, but I'm proud."

One of the oldest clichés in the music business is that you have your whole life to write your first record - and then if it's a hit, the second album is written on a schedule, while you're busy promoting and touring. But with Crazy-Ex Girlfriend, Lambert proves that for a writer of her caliber, life on the road can actually add experience and perspective.

"At this point, you write 'em on the road or you can't write at all," says Lambert. "You work, you get tired, but you also grow up. I'm more mature. I learned a lot about people and about who to trust, but I'm also a 23 year old girl and I go through things that other girls go through, and that's the vulnerable side of the record."

Miranda Lambert first exploded onto the scene as a finalist in the 2003 season of the "Nashville Star" television series. She didn't win – a result she has described as a blessing. "I was hoping not to win," she once said. "The winner had to go in right after the contest and make a record in a couple of weeks, and I wasn't ready."