Pistol Annies are back! The trio, consisting of Ashley Monroe, Angaleena Presley, and Miranda Lambert, will release their sophomore album, titled Annie Up, on May 7th! Stocked with a dozen songs, all written by one or more of the Annies — including the album’s debut single, “Hush Hush” — Annie Up is a project that all three Annies are incredibly excited to see released. Miranda has said, “It’s been like waiting for Christmas morning to come,” and now that the day is at hand, Miranda is also trusting that this album will prove that Pistol Annies have so much more to offer beyond the success of their debut album, Hell on Heels. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)

• The Annies say that they’re really excited about the release of their new album, Annie Up, and you may just see them picking up a copy somewhere! (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• “Hippie Annie” Ashley Monroe says that the trio found a lot of their songwriting inspiration for this album from the fans who’ve come to see them play. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• Look for the Annies to perform their debut single from Annie Up, “Hush Hush,” on NBC’s Today show on Tuesday, May 7th, as well as on CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman later that night!
• Pistol Annies — Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe, and Angaleena Presley — talk about their experience in recording their album, Annie Up, and they say that it was not only great fun for them and others involved in the recording, but it was also incredibly natural, and truly a project that pooled all three of their collective talents. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• On Wednesday, May 8th, Pistol Annies will head for ABC’s The View, where they’ll perform the closing track from Annie Up, a song called “I Hope You’re the End of My Story.” And while Ashley’s original inspiration for writing the song with Angaleena and Miranda was her fiancé, baseball player John Danks, she says that the lyrics can be interpreted in a number of different ways. (AUDIO INFO BELOW)
• In addition to the May 7th release of Annie Up — both as a digital album and on CD — it’s also available as a vinyl LP! Very cool! Get yours here: http://smarturl.it/AnnieUpVinyl.
• The album is already attracting raves, with an “A-” review in Entertainment Weekly, as Annie Up also landed on EW‘s “Must List” of “The Top 10 Things We Love This Week”!
• Are you up on your Annies? Keep up with them anytime on PistolAnnies.com!
• And congratulations to the band, who picked up a nomination today for Group Video of the Year at the 2013 CMT Music Awards! The Annies are nominated for their video for “Takin’ Pills,” from their debut album, Hell on Heels. If you love the Annies, be sure to vote for them, with fan voting underway now on CMT.com!

  Miranda Lambert hopes that the new Pistol Annies album will assure fans that their music is the real deal. (:20)
“The first album was cool and exciting and fun and new, and people were like, ‘What’s this Annies thing? What are…Miranda’s doin’ a side band — what’s gonna happen?’ And I think people will be surprised that we actually have a really great second album. I hope they’re pleasantly surprised with…it wasn’t a fluke. It’s real. It’s the real deal.”

  Pistol Annies say that they plan to buy their new album when it’s out — and they’re super excited to see it being released. (:46)
Ashley: “I will. I’m sure (laughs) we will.”
Angaleena: “I still, every time I’m in Target or Walmart, I put ours on the endcap.”
Ashley: (laughs) “Yay, thanks, Ang!”
Angaleena: “Don’t think I don’t, and I cover up some other person.”
(laughter)
Angaleena: “Not naming any names, but I always take all of ours — well, I leave one there just in case they look — and then I put all the rest of them on the endcap.” (laughs)
Ashley: (laughs) “Yeah, so were super excited. I’m not…”
Angaleena: “So, yeah!”
Ashley: “I’m not nervous about it, either. I have such a calm feeling, and I feel like, I mean, I listen to this record all the time. It has nothing to do with the fact (laughs) that I’m singin’ on it or that I’m in this band. I listen to it  ’cause I want to. And I have a great faith in this record. I really think that people are gonna understand it. We’re all super proud of it, so, I’m ready for it to be out.” (laughs)
Miranda: “Mm-hmm.”

  Pistol Annies’ Ashley Monroe talks about the trio’s songwriting dynamic for their new album, Annie Up. (:23)
“We wrote a lot of this record on the road, and I think we would get energy from them every night. You know, when the crowd’s response, we started to see it grow, you know, and we started to see them singin’ back our songs, they inspired us, I feel like, to keep on writing. And when we’re together, we say sometimes it’s like we all plugged in to a higher source, and it’s really true. When we’re all three together, we can’t not write songs. It’s weird, but I like it.”

  Pistol Annies talk about being in the studio to record their new album, Annie Up. (1:21)
Angaleena: “Well, we had, at the end of the week, Glenn Worf…he has played on every record you can think of, everywhere, everything. He came in, and he poured a glass of wine. He was like, ‘Before I drink this, I just want to say with a clear head that this was one of the most amazing weeks of music that I have ever had in my career.’ And it was just, like, so effortless. I mean, we had so much fun, and it was just…”
Ashley: “Another example of it’d be harder to not do it than it would be to do it.”
Angaleena: “Well, we were scheduled to be in, and Ashley got sick and had to go in the hospital, and so that first day, it was just me and Miranda in there.”
Miranda: “It was like pullin’ teeth. Oh, it was horrifying.”
Angaleena: “I rather would have been at the dentist; it was like gettin’ a root canal.”
Ashley: “And I was in the hospital, but ballin’, sayin’, ‘I’m not there for my band!'” (laughs)
Angaleena: “It was just like…I was like, ‘What are we doin’?’ It’s just…and we finally, so, we cut ‘[Don’t Talk About Him,] Tina’ that day.”
Miranda: “Well, she left…”
Angaleena: “And I had to leave…”
Miranda: “It just goes to show that we either have to be separate or together. We can’t do two — you gotta have three or one.”
Angaleena: “I mean, I was all freaked out. I was like, was it the band, was it us…just somethin’ wasn’t right. And then, that first day, what would we cut? ‘Girls Like Us’?”
Miranda: “When Ashley was back, we’re all in synch.”
Angaleena: “And it was just like, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s on!’ It started, and it didn’t stop, and we didn’t separate for the whole (laughs) time we were in the studio.”
Ashley: “We stick together when we’re together.”
Angaleena: “We slumber-partied all week long.”

  Ashley Monroe says that one of Pistol Annies’ tracks from Annie Up, the song “I Hope You’re the End of My Story,” was inspired by her fiancé, John Danks. (:22)
“I had that started, obviously about my John, but when I sing it, I do think about my mom and my dad. My dad passed away, but oh, just like that — just wanting to hold on to the very end. I just think it’s a love song that can be about a lot of different things, you know, and to a lot of different people in your life. I cry every single time I hear it. Every time.”