Name me cautiously intrigued about what Kacey Musgraves may need up her sleeve within the not too distant future.
You may nearly neglect that when Kacey Musgraves got here out in 2012 along with her debut single “Merry Go ‘Spherical,” she was thought-about the cool artist of mainstream nation, and along with her first two albums Identical Trailer Totally different Park (2013), Pageant Materials (2015), and even her A Very Kacey Christmas album (2016), she offered as a neotraditionalist in nation, nonetheless kitschy in facet. Her large breakout Golden Hour (2018) additionally included a few of this sound, even when it was additionally her transition into extra pop materials.
In reality, Kacey Musgraves was by no means actually meant to be a creature of Music Row in Nashville. All of it simply sort of occurred that manner. When she initially signed her label deal, it was with Misplaced Freeway Information, which was UMG Nashville’s “alt-country” label so to talk the place much less industrial and Americana-like acts comparable to Hayes Carll and Ryan Bingham had been stabled. However when Misplaced Freeway folded, Musgraves was moved to the far more mainstream-oriented Mercury Nashville, and was marketed by them.
Lately, it was introduced that Misplaced Freeway was being recommissioned, and much more not too long ago that Kacey Musgraves was named the label’s new flagship artist. She even launched her model of the “Misplaced Freeway” tune, written by Leon Payne, and popularized by Hank Williams. It recollects Kacey’s conventional nation roots.
However Kacey’s albums Star-Crossed (2021) and the marginally extra folksy Deeper Properly (2024) inform a distinct story. Musgraves moved away from co-writers and producers Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne who helped craft her kitschy conventional nation sound (much like the band Midland), and Musgraves discovered a decidedly extra indie rock facet with producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian.
These tasks pulled Kacey Musgraves away from her nation fandom, and admittedly haven’t actually expanded the viewers into the indie world. Even a few of Kacey’s strongest supporters referred to as them a slight disappointment, although Deeper Properly did discover a extra favorable reception than Star-Crossed, and noticed the return of Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne on the album’s largest tune “The Architect” (which received a Grammy).
Perhaps Kacey Musgraves has gotten the trace that what the world needs from her is a little more of her nation influences in comparison with her final couple of tasks. And if she’s studying the tea leaves, she would know that’s the place the general public’s urge for food is in the intervening time.
In a latest function in The Hollywood Reporter, Kacey Musgraves acknowledged,
From the age of seven, 8 years outdated, I used to be singing all of the nation requirements and classics: Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Hank Snow, Cindy Walker. It’s such part of me, I can’t escape even when I needed to.
And it actually feels good to wholeheartedly embrace that sound, as a result of I’m at all times listening to that sort of factor. There could also be a false impression that nation music is simple to copy. Once you take a look at the bones of conventional nation — the construction, the sounds, the subject material — it’s not straightforward to copy. It comes throughout as quite simple, and the perfect nation music is.
But it surely’s filled with so many layers of coronary heart and actual life, actual tales. And there’s lots of restraint. Actually good conventional nation music, there’s lots of house for the lyrics, the story, for the heartbreak and the feel. I actually respect that about that period of nation music. It paints an image, nevertheless it’s delicate and it’s easy.
Not solely does this quote really feel like Kacey Musgraves explaining a few of her most basic influences, it looks like Kacey Musgraves explaining that nation music isn’t simply one thing you’ll be able to declare you need to make with out a deeper understanding of what it’s—one thing that feels prefer it must be underscored on this second when it appears everybody and their mom needs to “go nation.”
There may be additionally loads of speak of pushing boundaries and taking dangers in nation within the Hollywood Reporter function—one thing that has coloured Kacey’s profession all through the years. I don’t suppose any of us ought to anticipate the following Kacey Musgraves challenge to be conventional nation. However she does say within the article,
“I’ve been feeling actually good taking part in round with some extra—I need to say ‘conventional’—however on the similar time, there at all times needs to be a contemporary edge there in a roundabout way. There needs to be a steadiness between custom and future.”
It’s that edge she discovered between “conventional” and “future” that made early Kacey Musgraves so compelling and influential on lots of different performers. If she might discover that edge once more, maybe she might get again to the sound that netted her eight Grammy Awards, and helped provide a counter-balance throughout the Bro Nation period, and finally, pulled the style away from from the ills of the 2010s.
Maybe on Misplaced Freeway, Musgraves can discover that alt-country magic as soon as once more.
