Despite what you hear on the radio or see on the charts, women are making important country music. Miranda Lambert is out to prove that with her Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour, which comes to Xcel Energy Center on Oct. 19.
The country superstar has enlisted a trio of female opening acts – blues-rocker Elle King of "Ex's and Oh's" fame; rising country singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde, whose "Girl Going Nowhere" was one of the best Nashville albums of 2018, and Pistol Annies, Lambert's side project (with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley) that served up one of the best records of last year with "Interstate Gospel."
Lambert, a nine-time winner of the ACM award for female vocalist of the year, doesn't have a new album but she has enough hits in her catalog – from "Kerosene" to "The House That Built Me" – to fill an evening.
The concert will benefit Animal Ark, a Minnesota animal welfare nonprofit founded in 1977.
Tickets, priced from $43.75 to $98.75, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster outlets and the Xcel box office.
Also announced on Monday is another Lizzo gig. Fresh from her triumphant performances at the Coachella fest the past two weekends, the Twin Cities-launched R&B/hip-hop star has booked an Oct. 9 concert at the Armory in Minneapolis. Tickets go on sale at noon Friday at livenation.com. A presale for American Express cardholders runs from 10 a.m. Tuesday to 10 p.m. Thursday.
Lizzo, who released her major-label album "Cuz I Love You" on Friday, already sold out her May 5 show at the Palace Theatre.
