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| Photo courtesy of PG Photography |
Not only is Kacey extracting every ounce of brilliance from
SAME TRAILER DIFFERENT PARK in her stage show, her selected covers matched the
moment and there is growing evidence that the classic album will be followed up
in a similar vein. What struck me most about seeing Kacey for the first time is
how she combined the roles of singer-song writing guitarist and acclaimed
charismatic entertainer with such ease. Maybe the between song banter will
evolve from mere saccharine irreverence to more incisive comment in time but at
the moment the sophistication is in her lyrics and ability to further the cause
of raising the bar for progressive country song writing.
The songs of SAME TRAILER were pristinely delivered by Kacey
and her band in their own inimitable style with the crowd lending a hand to numerous
tracks, no more fervently than the passionate closer ‘Follow Your Arrow’ and the designated classic ‘Merry Go Round’. One of the more under rated tracks off the album ‘It Is What It Is’ rose to prominence during
the set as a venue not normally the domain of silence was utterly besotted by a
pedal steel led song so demanding in its quest for audience respect. Poor old ‘Dandelion’ was the only omission from
the set list as the excellent ‘Silver
Lining’ graced the early stages and ‘My
House’ acting as the pre-encore number. The performance of the latter saw
the band form an arc around Kacey and her harmonica as the crowd responded enthusiastically
to the infectious beat of this song’s rhythm.
To pay respects to the Queen of Country only a couple of
days before they both improved the output from Glastonbury, Kacey looked every
inch a protégé of Dolly when singing ‘Here
You Come Again’. Her cover of the TLC hit ‘No Scrubs’ was a solitary blot on the evening as she edged into a style which
didn’t connect, alternatively she put a smile on an awful lot of faces when
sampling the Marley Classic ‘Three Little
Birds’ in her own composition ‘Step Off’.
It’s hard to class Miranda Lambert’s ‘Mama’s
Broken Heart’ as a cover as Kacey had a part in writing it but her encore
version of the Nancy Sinatra standard ‘These
Boots Are Made For Walking’ was simply stunning. Accompanied by a literally
lit up band and Kacey’s own sparkling boots, the song opened with a near gothic
groove until Kacey took over before she ultimately let the band complete it
with a touch of ‘off the leash’ rock.
One of the high hopes from attending this gig was to get a
glimpse of what the future holds for Kacey Musgraves. She admitted herself that
a lot of new song writing had not taken place but was soon to be rectified. The
You Tube clip of Kacey singing ‘The
Trailer Song’ at the Opry has already aired this excellent country-drenched
song to the online world and the news of its single release is the next big
move for her. Make no mistake this song has the potential to thrill many
country fans right across the spectrum and was one of the highlights of this
special gig. A Manchester audience had already heard the unrecorded opening
song ‘High Time’ when she played the
city last October but the whole world was virtually getting ‘Cup of Tea’ previewed live for the first
time. As you would expect, this song had instant appeal with an immediate positive
crowd reaction.
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| Photo courtesy of PG Photography |
If anybody was left unconvinced that Kacey is not the great
unifying hope for country music then the band’s a capella rendition of the 1952
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans theme song ‘Happy
Trails’ to end the show sealed the deal. Whether she’s writing cutting lyrics, representing
the genre in a crossroads alliance with Katy Perry or engaging with an ever
increasing audience base, Kacey Musgraves is propelling herself into the ‘A’
list of country music performers. If there is a battle to be fought, then the
purists will have no finer ally within the industry.
