Kacey Musgraves was at an in-between before starting work on her seventh album. Between relationships, between record cycles and, as the country-pop star visited family in her hometown of Golden, Texas, literally “Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere” – or so a billboard told her as she passed it. That billboard has now given Middle of Nowhere its name, the record following Musgraves as she explores liminal spaces like these.
It’s yet another career-best offering, one that incorporates sounds from the Grammy winner’s current home in Mexico, as well as her Texan roots – think Spanish guitars, zydeco and bluegrass. While the title might suggest a sense of being stuck, she seems perfectly content where she is. Sure, there’s the hilarious “Dry Spell”, on which Musgraves laments her lack of a sex life over spaghetti western twangs of guitar (“It’s been a real long/ Three-hundred and thirty-five days/ And the last time/ It wasn’t good anyway”). But there’s also the luxuriously paced title track, steeped in slide guitar and dreamy, layered harmonies, which finds her revelling in the freedom of a world without schedules, without dating.
