Beech Tree News Network

Country superstar Kacey Musgraves certainly knows how to make an entrance.  The 8x Grammy winner took the stage at Coachella this year on horseback.  Just a week later, feet planted firmly on the ground, she spoke with CBS Sunday Morning’s Anthony Mason.

When Kacey Musgraves went home to East Texas a few years ago to heal from a breakup, she saw a sign that read Golden, Texas: Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere.  “I thought, okay, a record called Middle of Nowhere? I feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere right now”.  Soon, the rest of an album started to spill out.  “I had that title (of her latest single, “Dry Spell”) written in my phone because I was, quite literally, going through a dry spell”.  

When asked if she gets excited when she writes a great lyric, she says “there’s no greater drug.  Mostly, I’m always in competition with myself.  Can I beat myself? Can I make this better? Leaving that day and playing it in my car and I’m like “okay, I have not lost it.  That was good.  I remember doing “Space Cowboy” (for her 2018 4x Grammy winning album Golden Hour).  I was on the treadmill one day and heard the words “space” and “cowboy” in my mind.  But I heard it like “space, cowboy”.  Personally, this writer thought about the Steve Miller Band song.  Kacey’s “Space Cowboy” won her a Grammy for best country song in 2019.  That same year, her album Golden Hour won album of the year.

Kacey started out performing the Texas circuit at spots like Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth.  She was 8 or 9 years old, she reveals.  “It’s a big deal.  I don’t know if you know this, but when you sell out Billy Bob’s, you get to put your hands in the concrete.  They still fit! Kacey grew up a couple hours’ drive from Fort Worth.  “A little bitty town called Golden”.  Mason was in Golden 13 years ago to do a profile of Musgraves for the first time.  

Kacey’s mother Karen Musgraves has kept a scrapbook of her career.  “You came to my parent’s house.  We all sat around the table.  We all had very interesting hair choices at that point in time.  I rewatched it recently and was like “wow, my bangs.  I don’t know what’s happening.  You took a visit to my grandpa’s record collection, which he still has”.  He started the collection when Kacey started playing.  “It’s just as unorganized”.

One of Kacey’s earliest influences was John Prine.  “He was a mentor for sure for me”.  Prine died of Covid in 2020.  Kacey’s song “Cardinal” on her 2024 album Deeper Well was a tribute to Prine.  “I really do feel like he sent me messages and the cardinal kept visiting.  I know that was a major symbol for him.  We tried to write a song one time.  I went to his house, but we never wrote a song.  I just listened to his stories all day.  He said, “well we probably aren’t gonna write a song, are we”? I said, “probably not”.

Middle of Nowhere is Kacey’s sixth album.  Her first five went to #1 on the album charts.  Her sister Kelly shot the cover for the new album.  Kacey says “I called my friend Evan and said “do you have any bulls you could bring?” He was like “I have a really sweet one. His name is Tex.  The police came over and said “do you guys have a permit for this”?  We said “no” and they were like “alright”.  My question after that story was how did they get off that easy?

Mason closes his piece like this: “In writing her new record, Kacey says she’s learned how to embrace being alone”.  She admits “it’s nice to be able to stop the tape and (ask yourself) why do I make these choices.  I realize there’s nothing lonelier than being in a relationship that isn’t right for you”.  After 335 days, she isn’t in the middle of nowhere anymore.  She concludes the interview by admitting “the dry spell was broken”.  

(CBS Sunday Morning, 4-26-26).