Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Lee Musgraves (born August 21, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She began her career in the early 2000s, when she self-released three solo albums and recorded another album as a member of the duo Texas Two Bits. In 2007, Musgraves appeared on the fifth season of the USA Network singing competition Nashville Star, where she finished in seventh place. In 2012, she signed with Mercury Nashville and released the hit single "Merry Go 'Round". Her major-label debut studio album, Same Trailer Different Park (2013), won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards.

Musgraves' second studio album, Pageant Material (2015), debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 chart and yielded the critically and commercially successful singles "Biscuits" and "Dime Store Cowgirl". She released a Christmas-themed album, A Very Kacey Christmas (2016). Her fourth studio album Golden Hour (2018) was released to widespread critical acclaim and won all four of its nominated Grammy Award categories, including Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The album's first two singles, "Space Cowboy" and "Butterflies", won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song and Best Country Solo Performance, respectively. Musgraves' fifth studio album, Star-Crossed (2021), became her fourth top-ten album on the Billboard 200. In 2023, she was featured on the single "I Remember Everything" by Zach Bryan, which debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and won a Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. Her sixth studio album, Deeper Well (2024), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, and the album's single "The Architect" won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

Musgraves has won eight Grammy Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, and four Academy of Country Music Awards.

Early life

Kacey Lee Musgraves was born August 21, 1988, in Sulphur Springs, Texas, and grew up in Golden, Texas. Her parents are Karen (née Abrams), an artist, and Craig Musgraves, owner of a small printing business, M-Prints Printing, Inc., in Mineola, Texas. Kacey said that she was born six weeks prematurely and weighed only five pounds. She has a younger sister, Kelly Christine Sutton (née Musgraves), who is a photographer and at times has photographed some of Kacey's work including in the Cotswolds in South West England.

Kacey Musgraves started writing songs at age eight. Her first song, "Notice Me", was for her elementary-school graduation. She first learned to play music on the mandolin, then at age 12 started taking guitar lessons from a local musician named John DeFoore, which she later described as "one of the most important things that ever happened to me." DeFoore also taught guitar to Miranda Lambert and Riley Thompson. Musgraves learned harmonica too.

Musgraves' mother took her to local music festivals to sing western swing music. She and co-student Alina Tatum formed country-music duo Texas Two Bits, toured through Texas, and released an independent album in 2000, and earned an invitation to perform at President George W. Bush's "Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball". Musgraves also won yodeling national championships and was selected to sing the national anthem at the 2002 Winter Olympics. At age 14, her family funded her first solo, self-released album. She graduated from Mineola High School in Mineola, Texas northwest of Tyler in 2006 and moved to Austin at 18. In 2007, Musgraves competed on Season 5 of the singing competition reality TV series Nashville Star, where she placed seventh. To sustain herself she took various jobs, including performing as Hannah Montana for children's birthday parties.

Career

2008–2014: Debut

Musgraves recorded three self-produced albums in 2002, 2003, and 2007. While living in Austin in 2008, she recorded two songs for independent record label Triple Pop. She collaborated with the Josh Abbott Band in 2010 on the song "Oh, Tonight". Musgraves' two acoustic recordings for Triple Pop (covers of OneRepublic's "Apologize" and Miley Cyrus' "See You Again") are available on a digital EP released in 2012. "Apologize" (Acoustic Version) charted in the Billboard Hot Singles Chart at No. 23 on February 15, 2014, and racked up over 31,000,000 streams on Spotify. To commemorate the 10-year anniversary on March 30, 2018, Triple Pop released the "Acoustic Remixed" digital EP, which featured newly remixed and remastered versions of the same recordings.

Musgraves joined Lady A on the European leg of their Own the Night Tour in 2012. In 2012, she signed with Mercury Nashville and released her solo debut single "Merry Go 'Round". The song is included on her major-label debut album Same Trailer Different Park, produced and co-written by Musgraves, Shane McAnally and Luke Laird and released on March 19, 2013. The album debuted at number 2, selling 42,000 copies. It produced additional hit singles in "Blowin' Smoke" and "Follow Your Arrow". Rolling Stone magazine listed "Follow Your Arrow" at number 39 of its list of 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time, and said that Musgraves was "one of the loudest symbols of young country musicians embracing progressive values." "Undermine", a song co-written by Musgraves and Trent Dabbs, was featured in one of the first episodes in the first season of the television series Nashville on October 17, 2012. Musgraves co-wrote Miranda Lambert's 2013 single "Mama's Broken Heart" and sang harmony on the song.

Musgraves was nominated for four awards at the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in 2012, including Female Vocalist of the Year. Musgraves was also nominated for four Grammy Awards at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, tying Taylor Swift and Lorde for the most nominations received by a woman that year. Those nominations included Best New Artist, Best Country Album (Same Trailer Different Park), and Best Country Song for both "Mama's Broken Heart" and "Merry Go 'Round". "Merry Go 'Round" won the Best Country Song Grammy award, and Same Trailer Different Park won in Best Country Album.

Musgraves joined Katy Perry on the North American leg of her Prismatic World Tour as well as Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss on select dates during their tour. Musgraves provided backing vocals for "Bourbon in Kentucky", the lead single on Dierks Bentley's 2013 album Riser. In April 2014, Musgraves won the Academy of Country Music award for album of the year for Same Trailer Different Park. In June 2014, she released a new song called The Trailer Song, which she debuted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Same Trailer Different Park was certified gold in August 2014 for selling over 500,000 copies. Musgraves' single "Follow Your Arrow" was also certified gold, and "Merry Go Round" was certified platinum.

2015–2017: Early album releases

Musgraves announced in late August 2014 that she would perform a 10-show headlining tour, titled Same Tour Different Trailer, which started on September 25 and ended on October 19. In September 2014, she said that she had begun writing songs for her second major label album, and planned to write with Luke Laird and Shane MacAnally later in the year after her touring schedule wrapped. "Biscuits", the lead single from the album, was released on March 16, 2015.

Pageant Material, Musgraves' second studio album, was released on June 23, 2015. To support the album, Musgraves performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (June 9, 2015), Late Night with Seth Meyers (June 10, 2015), Good Morning America (June 23, 2015), The View (June 24, 2015), Jimmy Kimmel Live! (September 14, 2015), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (January 8, 2016), and The Late Late Show with James Corden (April 6, 2016).

Musgraves was featured on a remix of Miguel's single "Waves", released on February 26, 2016. On September 7, 2016, Musgraves announced the release of her first Christmas album, A Very Kacey Christmas. The album, which features eight traditional and four original songs, was released on October 28, 2016, through Mercury Nashville. In support of the album, Musgraves embarked on a Christmas-themed tour, complete with a strings section, an accordion, a bass, a saxophone, a clarinet, and backup singers. In September 2016, Musgraves was selected as one of 30 country music artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up track of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again", and "I Will Always Love You". The song celebrates 50 years of the CMA Awards and secured Musgraves her first number-one country single.

In 2017, Musgraves provided backing vocals on "All the Best", a John Prine cover, for Zac Brown Band's album Welcome Home. Also in 2017, Musgraves was featured on Outlaw: Celebrating the Music of Waylon Jennings. Originally recorded for TV, it later was released on CD and DVD. During the broadcast, Musgraves performed Jennings' song "The Wurlitzer Prize". Musgraves appeared on the June 21, 2017, episode of Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry to receive a psychic reading and connect with her grandmother, Barbara Taylor, to learn more details about her death in a house fire. Musgraves has said that her song "This Town", from the album Pageant Material, is about her grandmother, and that her grandmother sings during the opening of the song.