Who’s the hottest new country act of the year? With one single to their name, a debut album still two weeks away from store shelves, and Miranda Lambert in the lineup, the answer just might be Pistol Annies.

The red-hot trio — consisting of Lambert, Angaleena Presley and Ashley Monroe — recently sat down with Taste of Country to dish a little about their first album, ‘Hell on Heels,’ and discuss the balance between solo songwriting and life as a group.

“We actually met like two-and-a-half years ago,” explains Presley. “Ashley and Miranda had co-written a few songs that didn’t really fit on their solo albums and they didn’t know what to do with them, but they didn’t want to give them away because they were great songs.”

She adds, “Ashley played Miranda some of my music and she loved it and they called me at two o’clock in the morning, forced me out of bed and made me email them my whole record and that’s all she wrote.”

“It’s nerve-wracking for me especially,” says Lambert. “I have a solo career and didn’t want people to compare it or say negative things about the project. So far, knock on wood, we’ve had really great reviews and really great fan response. It feels good to know what we thought was so great, other people do too.”

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