NASHVILLE — A decade ago, alt-country rocker Steve Earle and country star Miranda Lambert shared writing credit on a hit from her debut album in 2005. But the two Grammy-winning performers never got into a writers’ room together until last year.

Lambert and Earle penned a twangy breakup duet for Earle’s new album, “So You Wannabe An Outlaw,” which revisits Earle’s history as a student of the outlaw country movement. He also enlisted help from icon Willie Nelson on the title track, which argues that being an outlaw meant “you can’t ever go home.”

Earle said he wanted to rehabilitate the term “outlaw” after realizing too many people still think it was all about booze and drugs, and not about the art of a great song.

Earle’s album was released last week.

Kristin M. Hall, The Associated Press