Miranda Lambert rides wave of success as new queen of country

Miranda Lambert is having a pretty good time of it. When “Four the Record” topped the country chart in November 2011, she became the first artist in that chart’s 47-year history to have her first four albums debut at No. 1.

She also picked up album of the year at the 2012 Academy of Country Music Awards.

At this year’s ACMs, she took home song and single of the year for “Over You,” a chart-topping ballad she cowrote with husband Blake Shelton, while adding a fourth consecutive female vocalist of the year ACM to her list of accomplishments.

At 29, she’s pretty much as big as country singers get without overtly crossing over into pop like Taylor Swift.

And that makes Lambert kind of nervous.

“It’s a little scary,” she says, “because I’ll never know when it’s just gonna stop. And I am just afraid it’s gonna stop abruptly.”

Lambert laughs, then adds, “I’m like, ‘OK, when’s the other shoe gonna drop. This is all too good.’ Everybody has a

point in their career where they kind of hit their prime, and I feel like that’s where Blake and I both are right now, and it’s really great to celebrate that together.”

It’s pointed out that she and Shelton, who stars as a mentor/judge on NBC’s “The Voice,” are something of a country-music power couple.

“We are,” Lambert says, with another laugh. “And that’s so weird because when we first met, we never would have thought that. And we didn’t get together to try to be that. But it sure is nice to not feel like one is ahead of the other. It’s really kind of equal with all the great things going on. It’s fun because it’s neat to watch each other.

“And now, when it starts to go down, we’ll be on the downhill, slowing-down slope together, which might be nice as well.”

Asked if she finds herself thinking about the downhill slope ahead when she’s making a record, Lambert answers quickly and emphatically.

“Yeah!” she says. “I mean, I freak out every time. I’m like a basket case when it’s time to make a record. I get so nervous as to ‘Is this gonna work? Is this gonna be the album that stops selling, that stops getting nominated?’ I know that I can’t live like that. I can’t do my whole career like that. But it definitely crosses my mind.”

One thing she do, though, Lambert says, is let those kind of thoughts define the music she records.

“I never will,” she says. “To me, playing it safe is when it end. I have never played it safe. I don’t go into the studio going, ‘I’m gonna be different’ or ‘I’m gonna do something crazy.’ I just do what I like. And if it’s not safe, well, that has to be what it is. I’m always gonna do that. If I write a song I love, I cut it. It is just that simple.”