Kacey Musgraves Represents Texas in Nashville
By Tom Geddie
It could be a couple of months or longer before Kacey Musgraves tools around East Texas again in her ’67 Mustang with the 351 Windsor V8 engine or listens to her vintage collection of vinyl recordings. At 18, much of what’s important to this free-spirited teenager, is twice or more her age.
Kacey is off to Nashville, basically sequestered in a big hotel as she competes — as the only Texan and youngest musician — in the USA Network’s “Nashville Star 5.” The 10 finalists (from more than 20,000 who auditioned) will compete for eight weeks, beginning January 11, on the nation’s top-rated country music program.
Whether she wins or not, Kacey is upbeat about the opportunity.
“I could play ever bar in Texas three times and not get as much exposure as I’m going to get from the TV show,” Kacey said. “I’m really excited to represent Texas as the only Texan on the show this year, and I’m really going to make Texans proud. I’m going to show them how Texans do it, because Texas has so many great musicians and songwriters.”
That’s five “Texas” or “Texans” in one sentence, a not-so-subtle hint to get the state’s country music fans to vote en masse for Kacey the way they did for her buddy Miranda Lambert, who launched a national career through “Nashville Star.” (Kacey is the fifth East Texan – Miranda, Casey Rivers, Josh Owen, and Shy Blakeman were the first four – on the show. She’s also the third music student of Mineola’s John DeFoore – along with Miranda and Casey – to make the finals.)
In a well-timed coincidence that’s sure to help sales, Kacey’s first full, real adult CD, Wanted: One Good Cowboy, which includes nine originals and two covers, is now being mixed and mastered and should be available any time. Her first CD, Movin’ On, released in 2002 when she was 14, won teen album of the year from the Lone Star Music Association. That same year, the Academy of Western Artists named her “yodeler of the year,” although as she matures the yodel seems to be less a part of her show.
Kacey’s easy country style is evident on a three-song demo with two of her own songs and a soulful cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” The first song, “Halfway to Memphis,” written with Miranda’s dad, Rick Lambert, seems to descend from Lee Ann Womack’s “A Little Past Little Rock” and the second, “Nothin’ More,” co-written with Seth Messimer, seems like a logical follow up to the Charlie Robison/Natalie Maines redneck adventure “The Wedding Song.”
Influences for Kacey, raised in Golden — in the greater metropolitan Mineola area — include Dolly Parton, Patty Griffin, Radney Foster, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Chris Knight, Tom Petty, Michelle Branch, the Byrds, and CCR. No, not the youthful, country-rockin’ Cross Canadian Ragweed, but the original rockin’ CCR: Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Other influences include her parents, the Lambert family, DeFoore, and the yodel king of Texas.
“John DeFoore has been a great inspiration,” she said. “I took guitar from him for years. He really got me interested in writing and in learning more about my guitar. He went above and beyond just being a guitar teacher, to help me really find myself as a performer and songwriter. I’ve begun to find my niche thanks to him and tons of other people.
“Janet McBride – who teaches in the Fort Worth stockyards – really pushed me to learn an instrument, and still works with kids today from all over the United States, helping them yodel and come out of their shells. She’s the yodel king of Texas.”
Kacey grew up around art and artists, with her parents Karen and Craig Musgraves and grandparents Barbara and Darrell Musgraves nurturing her along the way. She’s always had “access to like paint and all kinds of cool stuff to make things with,” she said. “I doodled in every thing, and try to see the art in everything.”
Her first public singing performance was around eight years old. Soon, she yodeled and sang on both “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America.”
“It was a lot of fun, and kinda broke the ice for me as far as getting used to being on camera,” she said.
Kacey wrote her first song – about a relationship going bad – when she was nine, but, she said, “I wouldn’t want anybody to hear it now.” Many of her songs are about relationships of various sorts; although she claims she never gets hurt in a breakup because she’s the one who does the leaving, at least in her songs.
“Songwriting is a huge part of who I am,” she said. “If you want to have a long career, you have to be a songwriter. It’s your story, your life, and if you don’t write for yourself you’re having somebody else tell your story.”
What’s important to her musically is continuing to learn.
“I’m still really young and have a lot to learn. As I try my hand at this Nashville competition, see how far I get, I’m just going to consider it to be a huge learning experience,” she said. “It’s like going to college. I’ve never really been away from home, but I could be gone for a while learning new music and learning new songs. And I will stay true to myself; what I write comes from my heart, what I’ve experienced. No matter what happens, I’m still going to be the same girl who runs into Wal-Mart with her sweat pants on” rather than wearing designer clothes to designer boutiques.
Kacey is also the same girl who just went hunting for “Bigfoot” in the East Texas woods with the crew of www.searchingforbigfoot.com.
“We didn’t get him,” she said.
Lynn Adler, who sang backup on Kacey’s new CD and, with Lindy Hearne, booked her into the Crossroads Coffeehouse in Winnsboro, said Kacey “soaks things up like a sponge” and has “got the total package for success, no doubt.”
Lynn also couldn’t help calling Kacey “kooky in a fun, free, spirited, and sometimes daffy sort of way.”
Kacey confirmed the impression.
“I’m kinda a free spirit, definitely an old soul,” she said. “I love anything vintage.”
Kacey’s been known to, every now and then at a party, break out in a bit of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s anthemic “Redneck Mother.” When she walked into Ray’s sound check before a recent show at Crossroads, he was doing a particularly greasy slide blues guitar lick.
Kacey’s immediate response – as a guitar, mandolin, and harmonica player herself – was, “Oh my gosh, will you marry me and teach me to play the blues?”
Ray, already married and old enough to be her grandfather, looked at the attractive young brunette and said, “Sure, why not.”
Nearly a month later, in the interview after she’d officially become a Nashville Star finalist, asked if she still wanted to marry Ray, Kacey said yes, of course.
“Oh my gosh, yes. His lyrics are amazing and he does great, cool licks. He’s just a cool person. He’s been through a lot, and he really knows his music. Plus he looks cool and he’s hilarious. He also sat down with me and gave me a lot of advice.”
Then, one of the day’s several interviews done, she sped off in her vintage ’67 Mustang to do another interview with Jason Hightower on Mineola’s radio station with the cool country name, KMOO.
