Documentary film offers a rare glimpse inside the making of the GRAMMY® Award-nominated album of the same name.
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Paramount+, the streaming service from ViacomCBS, today announced that Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert and Jon Randall’s THE MARFA TAPES will premiere exclusively on the service Thursday, Jan. 20, and will also roll out in the Nordics, Australia, Latin America, and Canada the same day. The documentary film will offer viewers a rare glimpse inside the making of the 2021 album of the same name, which was recently nominated for Best Country Album at the 64th annual GRAMMY Awards®.
Directed by Spencer Peeples and featuring live performances set against the backdrop of West Texas, THE MARFA TAPES also features candid interviews and behind-the-scenes footage captured during a five-day album recording session in November 2020. Barely a dot on the map, Marfa is an eccentric outpost in the midst of a vast expanse of nothingness, the perfect place to lose—or find—yourself. For Lambert, Randall and Ingram, it’s both. For more than half a decade, the desolate location has become a songwriting haven for the trio, yielding both massive hits and profound personal growth.
Recorded raw and loose with just a pair of microphones and acoustic guitars, THE MARFA TAPES is a stunning work of audio verité, an intimate, unadorned snapshot of a moment in time fueled by love, trust and friendship. The trio recorded much of the album outdoors, inviting the ambient sounds of the desert to seep into their live, bare-bones performances, and the atmosphere is utterly transportive. The result is a candid, unvarnished look at Lambert, Randall and Ingram’s undeniable chemistry in its purest, most honest form.
THE MARFA TAPES joins Paramount+’s growing slate of music specials, including the recently released MADAME X, Kacey Musgraves’ STAR-CROSSED, OASIS KNEBWORTH 1996, and the upcoming Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett documentary.
About Jack Ingram:
A true songwriter’s songwriter, Jack Ingram’s list of admirers reads like a who’s who of modern country and Americana: Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Patty Griffin, Steve Earle, Todd Snider, Little Big Town, Pat Green, the list goes on and on. Born and raised in Texas, Ingram spent more than a decade grinding it out in the trenches before landing his first number one in 2005. Since then, he’s taken home a pair of ACM Awards, landed CMA and GRAMMY nominations, and toured with everyone from Sheryl Crow and Brooks & Dunn to Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley. His most recent album, 2019’s Ridin’ High…Again, was a critical hit, praised by Rolling Stone as “searing” and hailed by the Dallas Morning News as “a gloriously raw, sweaty record full of swirling dust and swagger.”
About Miranda Lambert:
Hailed as “the most riveting country star of her generation” by NPR , Miranda Lambert has spent much of her career defying expectations, balancing massive commercial success with a fiercely independent spirit that’s guided her every step of the way. Over the course of eight studio albums, the Texas native has managed to sell seven million records in the US alone, top the Billboard Country Airplay chart six times, and take home three GRAMMY Awards, 14 CMA Awards, and a staggering 35 ACM Awards (including a record-breaking nine consecutive wins for Female Vocalist of the Year). In addition to her celebrated solo output, Lambert has also released four critically acclaimed albums with Pistol Annies, her chart-topping trio with fellow Nashville songwriters Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley.
About Jon Randall:
GRAMMY-winner Jon Randall began his musical career at the age of 20, when he landed a dream gig playing guitar with Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers. Since then, Randall has gone on to considerable acclaim as a writer, producer, and solo artist with his fingerprints on countless country hits performed by everyone from Dierks Bentley and Guy Clark to Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss. On top of his Billboard chart-topping work in the studio, Randall has also garnered both CMA and ACM Song of the Year Awards, most recently for 2017’s “Tin Man,” which he co-wrote with Miranda Lambert and Jack Ingram.
About Paramount+:
Paramount+, a direct-to-consumer digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service from ViacomCBS, combines live sports, breaking news, and a mountain of entertainment. The premium streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel. The service is also the streaming home to unmatched sports programming, including every CBS Sports event, from golf to football to basketball and more, plus exclusive streaming rights for major sports properties, including some of the world’s biggest and most popular soccer leagues. Paramount+ also enables subscribers to stream local CBS stations live across the U.S. in addition to the ability to stream ViacomCBS Streaming’s other live channels: CBSN for 24/7 news, CBS Sports HQ for sports news and analysis, and ET Live for entertainment coverage.
