Kacey Musgraves, a singer-songwriter from East Texas, is country music's next breakout star. Fresh back on American soil from three weeks touring Europe with Lady Antebellum and on the heels of the completion of her debut album due to be released later this year, Kacey has embarked on a radio tour to promote her first single "Merry Go Round," which ships to radio in September. As her very FIRST radio tour visit, her stop by K102 (KEEY St. Paul/Minneapolis) today also marked her (long overdue!) first trip to Minnesota. K102 is always on the forefront of the best new country artists, and Kacey embodies just that.

I've known of Kacey's incredible talent from her roots in the Texas music scene, and first heard her voice alongside Josh Abbott's in the sultry Josh Abbott Band hit song, "Oh, Tonight" [listen]. She's also an accomplished songwriter, with cuts on both Martina McBride and Miranda Lambert's most recent albums. Kacey has long been a 'you oughta know' feature that I unfortunately never seemed to have a chance to publish, but fortunately, her buzz has grown exponentially in the past few months. Heck... even Katy Perry [tweet] and Perez Hilton [blog] are onboard.

In an intimate acoustic K102 Roadhouse session, Kacey performed "Step Off," a spunky earworm that she described as being "about those kind of people that do negative things to further themselves" [listen]. If it's got whistling, you know it's good. She shows her small town Texas roots with "Merry Go Round," her first single; a song about the doldrums of daily life [below]. It's a powerful song with lyrics like "same hurt in every heart, same trailer different park / like dust we settle in this town" that'll gut-punch even the most unobservant of listeners. In what she described as a song inspired by her love of Willie Nelson (THIS is why I love her!), "It Is What It Is" is a beautiful country waltz about a broken but comfortable relationship. "It is what it is til it ain't anymore.." Soft but crystal clear in delivery, her incredible voice sent chills up my arm, as did the solo by her accompanying guitar player, Misa Arriaga. Kacey's brilliant songwriting charm shined with her witty "Trailer Song."



We not only got to hear her perform live, but also heard a few tracks from her forthcoming album. As the first project produced by hit songwriters Shane McAnally and Luke Laird, Kacey had a hand in writing each song, including my favorite, "Mama's Broken Heart" (cut by Miranda Lambert on Four The Record). I'm stupid happy about this, since I actually first fell in love with Kacey's demo of this song last year. "Nervous Breakdown"'s banjo-fueled stomp will blow minds, and is my pick for a single. Instant hit. "My House" is a sweet road-ramblin' no-doubt-about-it country love song with an Airstream (or something like it) as the main subject. "Everybody's Got A Story" has an important message about the blame game. "It doesn't matter if you were born rich or poor, you probably had some bad hand dealt to you along the way. You can't use it as an excuse to treat people like crap," Kacey described. Amen.

The seven song sampler I heard today was phenomenal. 20-something girls like me will find her refreshing, raw, relatable and REAL, but she has the ability to appeal to fans from fourteen to forty. I absolutely cannot wait for this music shake up the monotonous country music world. It's all happening!

Beth