Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
The next time Kacey Musgraves plays Atlanta, it’s highly unlikely it will be at a place as intimate at the Buckhead Theatre.
The country darling sold out the 1,500-capacity venue almost instantly and, based on the sweaty, adoring mass that packed the joint Thursday night, she could have sold out The Tabernacle just as easily.
For this first stop on the “Kacey Musgraves Country & Western Rhinestone Revue,” which will roll through the U.S. and Europe until November, the 27-year-old Texan satiated fans with a substantial set list that extracted the best of her lauded 2013 debut, “Same Trailer Different Park,” and offered a listen to nearly all of her new album, “Pageant Material.”
Taking the stage in a short, fringed dress and boots, Musgraves and her nattily attired five-piece band (think mauve suits with lights blinking from the pants legs and lapels) dove into the title track of her current release and followed it with the saucy “Biscuits” and now-old fave, “Step Off.”
For more than 90 minutes, Musgraves presented an even-tempo show with few peaks or valleys – just a steady, balanced diet of her smart, lyrically vibrant songs.
There is no questioning her skills as a songwriter – her wisdom belies her youth. But while Musgraves is infinitely more comfortable in the spotlight than when she opened for Lady Antebellum last spring , it still feels as if she'll always be happier turning raw emotion into words rather than standing center stage to sing them.
That said, Musgraves was a perfectly pleasant, if un-showy, hostess, sharing with the crowd that she “feared for her life” crossing the street near the theater earlier in the day and joking about the “weirdos” everyone has in their family before performing “Family Is Family.”
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
She also led fans in a hip-swinging cover of TLC’s “No Scrubs,” although with her sweet voice and delicate prettiness, Musgraves doesn’t bring quite the same go-for-the-jugular intensity as T-Boz and Chilli – interesting since songs such as “Mama’s Broken Heart” (turned into a hit by Miranda Lambert) and “Good Ol’ Boys Club” lacerate with their incisive lyrics.
Many of the new songs in Musgraves’ canon showcase her musical growth. “Late to the Party” is a pretty strummer that sounds like a throwback to the hallowed soft rock of the ‘70s, while “High Time” is swooping fun.
A tender moment came with “Fine,” a quiet, lulling song that Musgraves said is a favorite of her grandmother’s, which was paired with the bass drum-pumping “Dime Store Cowgirl.”
Unlike many (OK, most) of her peers, Musgraves seems quite content being a country girl living in a country world. Her songs are sprinkled with banjo and mandolin and fiddle and, when she huddled with her band at the front of the stage for a segment that included “Stupid” – featuring upright bass – and “It Is What It Is” – powered by the sad whine of lap steel guitar – her traditional roots shimmered.
Musgraves will always be a smidgen too edgy and too much of a maverick to kowtow to the trappings that shove an artist into arena-sized superstardom.
Fresh listens Thursday night to “Merry Go ‘Round” (performed solo acoustic and perfect in its imperfection) and the let-your-freak-flag-fly anthem “Follow Your Arrow” (still one of the strongest songs of the decade) confirm her admirable individualism.
So while it’s doubtful we’ll ever see Musgraves headlining stadiums – and even more doubtful that it’s a career goal – it’s a guarantee that her talent will continue to nudge her toward bigger things.
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