"Kacey Musgraves knew from the drop that there were only two ways she’d make a career: Hers or no way at all. “There’s a lot of freedom when you do that from day one, because there’s no expectations on you,” she told Apple Music in 2018. “Especially me, coming from the Nashville modern country music genre. There can be a lot of expectations, stipulations—a lot of rigid lines, especially as a female. And I was just like, ‘That’s not going to be me.’”

A native of East Texas, Musgraves (born in 1988) started releasing music while still in high school, making it to the reality show Nashville Star only to place seventh out of 10—an early sign that she was both of the industry and outside it. Her official debut, 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park, established Musgraves—alongside artists like Pistol Annies and Chris Stapleton—as a quietly progressive voice in a conservative field, capable of tackling subjects like LGBTQ rights or the hypocrisy of small-town life without shedding her rootsy appeal. In 2014, Same Trailer won her a Grammy; Pageant Material followed a year later. 

Musgraves’ 2018 LP, Golden Hour, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year, steered even further away from Nashville conventions, establishing her as something closer to a ’70s singer-songwriter than a modern country star. “I guess you could call it being an outsider,” Musgraves said. “But really it’s just me doing whatever I feel like is best for me and my music and whatever inspires me.”