KACEY MUSGRAVES: DEEPER WELL

“The life that we make

Is it random or fate?

Can I speak to the architect?”

Kacey Musgraves has always been a little bit magic. From the tumbling sparkle of Laurel Canyon acoustics that cascade into “Cardinal,” the swirling opener on the seven-time Grammy winner’s fifth album, Deeper Well, the metaphysical and incandescent are even more present and powerful from a woman whose songs have cast a glow on how evolved people live since her first single charmed the world with its hypocrisy-skewering charm.

Posing the questions rather than dropping answers, Musgraves embarks on a journey of elucidation. It is about seeking far more than resolving, and in the vast unknown she exults and finds some of the most compelling melodies in a career defined by melodic innocence yet inherent sophistication. Even more than the music, there are the images and signposts that mark this work–a song cycle of letting go, embracing hope, surrendering to bliss and realizing one’s own heart is the greatest refuge--with a fresh and beckoning tone.

Saturn returns, cardinals embody a dead friend, love is given and taken, streets rush by, belongings are packed and old chapters deserted, new love blooms, jade bracelets serve as talismans, deep lessons emerge, small details define everything, the woods are a refuge and New York City serves as the same gleaming beacon as Oz.

“Love is the prism,” says the sloe-eyed songwriter of Deeper Well, “and my role in it. I make sense of the world around me by looking for balance and I’d like to think this album is for anyone who’s living life and paying attention.

“If there’s one thing Musgraves has done across one of modern music’s most expansive and adventurous creative journeys, it’s trust her gut. Glistening folk-pop and country explorations with just enough bluegrass to spin the modern arrangements organically, she wears these songs like a second skin.

Whether it’s the expansive, banjo-meets-Daft Pun Golden Hour(the Grammy’s2019Album of the Year), the tragedy and post-divorce rumination of Star-Crossed, the Countrypolitan sparkle of Pageant Material, or the sharp debut Same Trailer Different Park, each recording rang true to where the Golden, Texan was in her life. (Yes, Golden: An unincorporated community in Wood County, Texas. According to The Handbook of Texas, the community had a whopping population of 156 in the year 2000.)

For Deeper Well, the introspective writer found herself drawn to NYC’s Electric Lady Recording Studio, known as Jimi Hendrix’s former apartment-turned-studio and legendary hub in the heart of Greenwich Village. Often working-with longtime co-producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian–in the room that was actually the iconic guitarist’s bedroom, the inspiration came with the simplicity and finger-picked straightforwardness of the Classic American Songbook met with a familiar bucolic shimmer.

“I didn’t know what kind of record I was going to make,” she admits. “Other than the fact that it was going to be soft and organic and honest. My songwriting roots. And about less meaning more. But beyond that, this album is about who I am in love and what I’m looking for. The songs are very spiritual. I was seeking some different environmental energy for this project, and Electric Lady has the best mojo. Great ghosts.