How does Kacey Musgraves spend her mornings? “Well, I’m in my kitchen right now,” she says, appearing on our Zoom call with bright eyes and bushy tail, dappled sunlight on treetops visible through the windows of the airy, bright room behind her. “I had a Greek yogurt bowl with some berries and honey. And now? Now I’m talking to you.”
If you listen to Musgraves’ new album, Deeper Well, It can be inferred that Musgraves has been in a rural, yoghurt-and-berry mood lately. (The title track begins by noting that her Saturn has returned, while another song, titled “Heart of the Woods,” is an ode to her new home deep in a Tennessee forest.) It’s a return to the Earth that was on feels good somehow. . Known for her sharp lyrics and progressive values, the 35-year-old country superstar has been stuck on the rollercoaster of fame for the past decade: first in Nashville, and then around the world, as her masterful third album, Golden hour– a breathtaking display of songwriting and sonic imagination that played with psychedelia and full-blown pop – saw her become the crossover star she always wanted to be, topping the charts and winning the Grammy for album of the year.
Of Deeper Well, she makes a new twist by entering the world of folk, albeit in Musgraves style. The opening number, “Cardinal,” begins with a “California Dreamin’”-esque guitar strum, before transitioning into a ’70s groove reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac at their peak. She also cites the influence of Vashti Bunyan, the English folk singer-songwriter who wrote much of her best-known music while riding a horse and cart through rural Scotland; while the album art shows her in a fluffy sweater, holding a sprig of crimson clover. “I had a kind of vision of a pioneer woman putting her hair up after the breakup of the last album [Star-Crossed] what it was all about, and getting back to her roots,” says Musgraves. “And I love that cottagecore is having a moment! It’s an aesthetic that I find great comfort in. This is my fun era,” she adds with a laugh. Think: Golden hour‘s older, wiser sister, who may or may not like crystals and breathwork and keeps a gratitude journal.
