Kacey Musgraves did the most country thing ever by suffering through a divorce in 2020, then writing an entire album about it.
Yet “Star-Crossed” is more stylistically moody pop, not country at all. (The Grammys agreed, omitting her album from the country category.)
Musgrave’s musical shifts over the years have done nothing to stop her fan base from growing to the point she took the leap from theaters in 2018-2019 to arenas on this current tour. She sold out State Farm Arena Wednesday night.
She last performed two dates at the Tabernacle, which she acknowledged during the show. (The Texas native and Nashville resident also opened her show patter by yelling “Hotlanta!” proving her non-Atlanta bona fides.)
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Musgraves is not a J. Lo dancer. She isn’t a Carrie Underwood belter. She lacks in-your-face spitfire á la Miranda Lambert.
Rather, she exudes a quiet confidence, her smooth vocal stylings enabling her to effortlessly transfer low-key meditative songs and power them into the upper reaches of an arena. It’s quite a superpower and the largely young, female audience was enraptured.
Her choice of outfit also provided a jumble of clues regarding her frame of mind. (Post-divorce, she is now dating ad copywriter and author Cole Schafer.) She was super casual below the waist, opting for loose tan cargo pants and white high tops. Above the waist, she wore a jacket with tassels on the sleeves, a nod to her country roots, and a spangly bikini top, a declaration that she isn’t going to adhere to conservative country norms. At the same time, her long straight hair resembled that of Crystal Gayle circa 1976.
In other words, she is complicated and just happy to be on the road again after the long pandemic freeze.
She carefully designed her 19-song setlist, which has remained largely the same during the tour, like a play, with a sad beginning, a messy middle and a hopeful ending.
“If anyone has a broken heart, we are here to put that [expletive] together,” she told her audience early on. Then noticing a young child in the front, she apologized for her chronic cursing, saying she has “the mouth of a 79-year-old sailor.” Then she added: “Let’s [expletive] do this!”
Her concert opened with “Star Crossed,” an intense summary of a marriage gone sour set behind Spanish-inflected guitar licks. The front of the stage, shaped like a heart, used lighting to display a heart beating, then literally cracking in half.
From there, the 90-minute concert became a rainbow of feelings and experiences regarding her marriage with fellow country singer Ruston Kelly. She tried to be a “Good Wife” (song #2), tried not to blow away like a “Cherry Blossom” (song #3), yearned for “Simple Times” (song #4), then grappled with the insecurities of a husband who didn’t like her being the “Breadwinner” (song #5).
She then sang a stretch of four songs from her 2018 Grammy-winning “Golden Hour” album, which was recorded during her marriage to Kelly. And while she did sing the sweet “falling in love” tune “Butterflies,” she also opted for the pensive “Lonely Weekend” and the slyly written break-up song “Space Cowboy.”
She then returned to her “Star-Crossed” album for a wistful look back on her smartphone photos of her relationship with Kelly in “Camera Roll,” then lamented the atrocities of dating in “Hookup Scene.”
Now an hour into the concert, she gave her early career a mere single song acknowledgement, skipping over past hits like “Follow Your Arrow” and “Biscuits.” She chose “Merry Go Round,” her debut single from her first album “Same Trailer Different Park” nearly a decade ago. She explained to the crowd how label executives initially found the song way too downbeat lyrically to launch her burgeoning country music career. Yet the song became her first and only top 10 country hit.
Ultimately, her edgy lyrical content alienated her from mainstream country radio. Thankfully, the late 2010s provided her other outlets to boost her career via word of mouth, downloads, videos and streaming services.
She did briefly show her goofy side by telling everyone how much she loved karaoke, singing Celine Dion “on reverb through the drive through” and initiating something she called ‘Kacey-oke,” similar to Kelly Clarkson’s “Kelly-oke” when she’s on tour. Musgraves picked someone in the audience, in this case a young man wearing a sparkly white cowboy hat, to choose from four songs for her to sing: Atlanta-based TLC’s “No Scrubs,” the Fugees’ version of “Killing Me Softy,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” or Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”
He opted for “Dreams,” the TikTok sensation that has been the most popular pick so far on tour. (”No Scrubs” has been selected only once so far in St. Paul, Minnesota.)
Credit: RODNEYHO/rho@aj
Credit: RODNEYHO/rho@aj
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
The most dance-worthy pop song she sang came near the end: the lively, flute-infused “There Is a Light,” one of the last cuts on her newest album. She then finished her pre-encore set with a cover of a Latin American classic “Gracias de la Vida,” which basically celebrates life and love in Spanish.
Throughout the night, she took full advantage of the arena, thrusting paper blossoms down from the ceiling during “Cherry Blossom,” then blasting confetti everywhere during “There Is a Light.” She also gave concertgoers special wristbands that lit up in multiple colors on command to illuminate the arena during particular songs, including her concluding “Rainbow,” a touchingly vulnerable message of hope for anyone trying to unload a burden off their shoulders.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
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