In every track on Kacey Musgraves’s sophomore album Pageant Material, there are one or two lyrics that would look great embroidered on a pillow or hanging as a decorative cross-stitch. Some are punny (“Mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy”), some are suggestive (“I’m always higher than my hair”), and others are just plain old clichés (“You can take me out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of me”). But while a lesser country star would have trouble pulling off that kind of down-home wisdom, Musgraves—with her earnestness and Opry-ready voice—wears it well.
In 2013, Musgraves released her debut album Same Trailer, Different Park. Its lead single “Merry Go Round” was a blunt and heartbreaking look into the dynamics of small-town life that gave her the kind of real-life country cred that even a wildly successful artist in the genre like Taylor Swift would be incapable of. In the catchy and inspirational “Follow Your Arrow” she famously told her fans to “kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls if that’s something you’re into.” It was the best album of that year for many reasons, but the pride with which she shared her opinions was one of the more notable ones.