By Jordyn Turney, 23, reporting from San Diego on Kacey Musgraves, a singer-songwriter she loves
When country singer Kacey Musgraves’ debut single “Merry Go ‘Round” came out last fall, I was immediately floored. The clever, charming first-person tale of small-town ennui was full of the resignation and desperation that these places where a lot of Americans spend their lives—where I spent a lot of my life—are famous for.
That one song reminded me so instantly and evocatively of the dirt road I grew up on that it inspired me to write a novel. Yes, it was that good.
And a couple of weeks ago, when Musgraves released the full album, Same Trailer Different Park, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn’t just one song I loved, but all of them. The lyrics are catchy without being inane, beautiful but still bracing, and the music buoying them up is perfect. Gritty and pretty, this is the sort of country that feels like a throwback to earlier times and the classics that play in radio retrospectives. (It’s also the sort of country that plays on today’s primetime television: Musgraves co-wrote “Undermine” the duet that Juliette Barnes and Deacon Claybourne sang on the second episode of ABC’s Nashville.
No, you can’t say Musgraves makes candy-pop. Her music is irresistible and smart. It has staying power. And though “Merry Go ‘Round” continues to be my favorite—it did inspire an epic literary undertaking, remember—there’s enough room in my heart for every song on this album. From “My House,” the happy ode to RV-living, to the love-is-stupid anthem appropriately called “Stupid,” each of these songs is an emotion, or an experience, boiled down to its essence. Kacey Musgraves is a refreshingly real voice in music, one whose songs make the truths of small-town life big-time moving.