Kacey Musgraves is having a full-circle moment. The eight-time Grammy winner was the final artist to sign with the illustrious Lost Highway Records before it folded into Mercury Nashville in 2012. Now the label has been revived under Interscope Records, with Musgraves back as its flagship artist. The moment sees the “Follow Your Arrow” songstress returning to her roots in more ways than one. She just released her own version of the 1949 Hank Williams hit “Lost Highway” in celebration. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about her newest era, Musgraves took some time to clear up a misconception about the genre she calls home.
Country Music Is “Not Easy To Replicate,” Kacey Musgraves Says
The first misconception that Kacey Musgraves would like to address is that she is returning—to Lost Highway Records, and to country music. Despite straying into dance and folk territory on previous albums, Musgraves is first and foremost a country artist. “It’s always been a home base, and it’s truly where I’m sonically the most happy,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
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Growing up with traditional country mainstays like Hank Williams and Loretta Lynn on repeat, the “Cardinal” singer, 36, knows that not just anybody can produce quality country music.
“There may be a misconception that country music is easy to replicate,” she says. “When you look at the bones of traditional country — the structure, the sounds, the subject matter — it’s not easy to replicate. It comes across as very simple, and the best country music is.”
In reality, the genre is teeming with heart, real-life stories, and a surprising amount of restraint, Musgraves said.
“Really good traditional country music, there’s a lot of space for the lyrics, the story, for the heartbreak and the texture,” she says. “I really appreciate that about that era of country music. It paints a picture, but it’s subtle and it’s simple.”
[RELATED: Kacey Musgraves Returns to the Old “Lost Highway” With Her Grandparents in Tow]
On Being Banned by Country Radio
Kacey Musgraves was halfway through making her studio debut, 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park, when Lost Highway folded. “Follow Your Arrow,” a self-empowerment anthem embracing both cannabis and the LGBTQ+ community, was the last song she turned in for the record—despite warnings against releasing it at all.
Turns out, Musgraves says, they were right—the song “ended up tanking.” Still, she has no regrets.
“I’m not going to present a watered-down version of myself to be accepted,” Musgraves said. “I’ll f—ing shovel s— for a living at a horse barn, and I’ll be really happy. Or I’ll just be a songwriter. Anyway, it ended up working out.”
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