Kacey Musgraves isn’t your average country star. Simply put, the songstress hailing from the small town of Golden, Texas does not stick to the status quo.

Unlike many modern country artists, Musgraves’s songs tell stories. And they’re not always pretty.

In her song “Slow Burn,” Musgraves admits that she’s never fit, and she’s always ruffled some feathers.

“Texas is hot, I can be cold/ Grandma cried when I pierced my nose”

Musgraves’s track “Mother” was written while she was on an acid trip.

And yes, she smoked weed with her husband on their wedding day.

Kacey Musgraves is something of a rebel. Although, earning this label may not have ever been her intent.

The driving force behind her boundary-pushing is not a calculated willingness to be different or progressive. It is much more organic; it’s her unadulterated free spirit.

She’s a self described “hippie country chick,” and she’s okay with the title.

Musgraves is no stranger to the Grammy’s. She’s even taken home a few awards. But this February, she’s up for the biggest award of her life: the Grammy award for Album of the Year.

Her latest work, Golden Hour, has received critical acclaim, garnering Grammy nominations, winning the CMA for Album of the Year, and landing itself at the top of many year end best of 2018 lists.

Golden Hour is her best work to date. She pushed the boundaries of the country music genre. She experimented, and it payed off.

Musgraves showed the public that she is not merely a good country artist but just a good artist in general.

So many music fans are on the record saying that they don’t even like country music, but they like what she’s doing. That’s pretty powerful.

Of course, Musgraves’s lax and quirky approach to life is not only prevalent in her music, but also in her style. This yeehaw queen’s wardrobe is uniquely her, corresponding with both her music and her life.

Same Trailer Different Park

By the time she released her debut album Same Trailer Different Park, Kacey Musgraves wasn’t too far removed from her small town, East Texas life.

The album is very much a commentary on her experiences and observations growing up in the sticks.

Rural life is often romanticized by modern country artists. In any given song, there is usually a male singer talking of driving down old back roads, cruising along in a tractor with a cold one in hand and a country girl on his arm. But those songs fail to present accurate depictions of agrarian life.

Kacey Musgraves on the other hand drops nothing but truth bombs, particularly on the track ‘Merry Go Round,’ in which she sings of the phenomenon of people getting stuck in the towns they grow up in. The song features great storytelling made possible by excellent songwriting. It seeps into the soul because it’s so real, and it can really be applied to any community. If anything, it emphasizes that no town, family or group is perfect, and cycles are hard to break.

“Momma’s hooked on Mary Kay/ Brother’s hooked on Mary Jane/ and Daddy’s hooked on Mary two doors down/ Mary, Mary, quite contrary/ We get bored so we get married/ And just like dust we settle in this town/ On this broken merry go round.”

During this album cycle, Musgraves took a simplistic approach with her style. She donned graphic tees, cowgirl boots, and frayed denim. A poster girl for trailer-park chic, her rustic look was complementary to the stories she was trying to tell.

Pageant Material

Though still critical of her hometown on her sophomore effort Pageant Material, Musgraves remains proud of where she comes from. On the track “Dime Store Cowgirl,” she sings of her feelings about her roots:

“You can take me out of the country/But you can’t take the country out of me, no/ ‘Cause I’m still the girl from Golden/ Had to get away so I could grow/ But it don’t matter where I’m going/ I still call my hometown home.”

But the singer-songwriter also puts further emphasis on how she never quite fit the small town mold -particularly the mold involving pageantry. After all, she was always just a “dime store cowgirl,”earning the title after a local mom compared her to one when she wore her hat cocked back one day.

Musgraves was never pageant material, and this was stated on the album’s title track:

“I ain’t pageant material/ I’m always higher than my hair/ And it ain’t that I don’t care about world peace/ But I don’t see how I can fix it in a swimsuit on a stage/ I ain’t exactly Ms. Congenial/ Sometimes I talk before I think, I try to fake it but I can’t/ I’d rather lose for what I am than win for what I ain’t.”

And of course, she takes another hit at small town life (and people in general) on the sassy track Biscuits:

“Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.”

From a fashion standpoint, this was Musgraves’s most grandiose and theatrical era. Her wardrobe was a tribute to country western glam and ironically, pageantry. It was both a celebration of her roots and maybe a sort of parody of it too. Big hair, fringe, and even tiaras were staple pieces.

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Photo courtesy of Larry Busacca/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Golden Hour

Musgraves’s latest work, Golden Hour, takes on a completely different tone than its predecessors. The bluntness and attitude that characterized Same Trailer Different Park and Pageant Material aren’t present on her most recent work. Musgraves’s aversion to romanticism disappears on Golden Hour, as if she sees the world in a new light. The album is dreamy, psychedelic, atmospheric, and human.



The songstress is quite literally in her golden hour, her peak. In the fall of 2017, Musgraves wed singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly, the inspiration for many of the songs on the album. “Butterflies,” one of the album’s gems, is among the works he inspired. Kelly, Musgraves implies, has made her a better version of herself; he has lifted her up.

“Now you’re lifting me up, instead of holding me down

Stealing my heart instead of stealing my crown

Untangled all the strings round my wings that were tied”

Kelly is also the one to thank for Musgraves’s new appreciation for the world and all its splendor.

“Oh, what a world, don’t wanna leave

All kinds of magic all around us, it’s hard to believe

Thank God it’s not too good to be true

Oh, what a world, and then there is you”

On “Oh, What a World,” the singer’s starry-eyed perspective is coupled with sparkling accompaniment and vocoders that add an interesting affect to Musgraves’s traditionally country sound.

Golden Hour is not an exclusively happy album. At some points, like on “Happy and Sad,” Musgraves’s songs are tinged with a quiet sadness.

“And I’m the kind of person who starts getting kinda nervous

When I’m having the time of my life Is there a word for the way that I’m feeling tonight?

Happy and sad at the same time

You got me smiling with tears in my eyes

I never felt so high

No, I’ve never been this far off of the ground

And they say everything that goes up must come down

But I don’t wanna come down”

Other times, there is frustration, such as on the glowing track “Wonder Woman.”

And of course, there is always trouble in paradise, as is revealed through the break up track “Space Cowboy.”

“I know my place, and it ain’t with you

Sunsets fade, and love does too”

Sure, Musgrave’s songwriting is stellar on this project, but the production may be even more so. The fusion of traditional country sounds like banjos and Musgraves’s own twang with synths, disco beats, shining guitars, dreamy backing vocals, and an overall smooth vocal delivery is wonderful.

Musgraves didn’t make a country album. She made a country-disco-psychedelic album, and it’s awesome. The exploration of various sounds and styles on top of a country western foundation is something more artists should experiment with because it really works here. It’s not limiting, and it produces awesome tracks like the disco-inspired “High Horse.”

The Texas native’s style has mirrored her free spirit and new found love for disco. But Musgraves has still stayed true to her country roots. She has embraced flowy dresses, bell bottoms, colorful ensembles, and bedazzled country attire.

More importantly, Musgraves has always stayed true to herself. While Golden Hour is something of a love letter to her husband, it’s also a journey of self acceptance. Musgraves is self aware, and this is evident at the start of the project on the aforementioned stunning opener “Slow Burn”:

“Born in a hurry/ Always late/ haven’t been early since ’88”

Musgraves is “alright with a slow burn.” She has accepted herself. She has embraced that she is in her own time zone, that coming into one’s own does not happen over night. Many of the songs on Golden Hour are about Musgraves’s spouse. But looking closely, they are about how he has helped her reach her fullest potential, and that’s so beautiful.

“Slow Burn” closes with a reluctant acceptance, but an acceptance nonetheless.

“Old soul/ waiting my turn/ I know a few things but I still got a lot to learn”

Powerful stuff. It doesn’t get more human than that.