Miranda Lambert knows how to cover a classic country song the right way.
She’s done plenty of them in the past, like Waylon Jennings’ “I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This”, and even teamed up with Eric Church years ago to sing the song we’re talking about today, “The Way I Am”.
Though it never reached the #1 spot on the country charts, it was originally written by Sonny Throckmorton and was the lead single and title track on Merle’s 1980 record. The song peaked at #2 on the US Billboard Country Songs chart the year it was released.
It has been covered by a couple other incredible artists over the years, too, like Alan Jackson for his 1999 album Under the Influence, Cody Jinks on his 2016 album I’m Not the Devil, and more recently, Riley Green did a cover, too.
Miranda also covered the song back in 2019 in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center on her “Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars” tour.
She told the crowd it was one of her favorite songs of Merle’s as she introduced it:
“I might totally screw it up, but that’s okay, y’all will forgive me won’t you? I can tell by your faces.
Alright, here we go… one of my favorite Merle Haggard songs.”
You absolutely cannot beat Miranda with an acoustic guitar singin’ a little Merle:
Merle’s original: