Kacey Musgraves, one of the most playfully adventurous artists to emerge from the Nashville country system this century, recently made her grand return to country music on the very fun new album Middle Of Nowhere. That means she's back to doing things like performing on country music awards shows. On Sunday night, the ACM Awards, one of the big two on the country calendar, aired out of MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, and Musgraves took full advantage, giving her very first performance on that show.
I thought maybe Musgraves and her old adversary Miranda Lambert would use the ACMs as an excuse to perform their new hatchet-burying duet "Horses And Divorces" for the first time, but they did that at Texas' Gruene Hall a couple of weeks ago. Instead, Musgraves sang her album's lead single, the horny-frustration lament "Dry Spell." As the performance began, she was sat a washing machine, a nod to a slyly dirty joke from the song's lyrics. Pretty soon, she and her band were in an elaborately constructed version of the supermarket from the music video. This was a pop-star performance on a country music stage, and it was fun. She looked good, too.
Maybe Miranda Lambert didn't sing with Kacey Musgraves because she had a performance of her own. Lambert just released her country-disco single "Crisco." Now: there's a rich history of country-disco fusion going back to the '70s, and Lambert, much like Musgraves, is one of the greatest artists who has emerged from the Nashville system in the time that I've been paying attention. But it's a good thing that Musgraves and Lambert are cool now, because otherwise Musgraves might have a reason to get on her high horse over this track. I'm just saying. "Crisco" is a good song. It's also a swerve into a lane that Musgraves has owned in recent years.
Miranda Lambert was also a winner last night. She co-wrote breakout star Ella Langley's gigantic crossover smash "Choosin' Texas." When that song won Single Of The Year, Langley brought Lambert onstage to talk. Langley was the night's big and obvious winner, taking home five awards. She would've probably won Entertainer Of The Year, too, but she wasn't nominated — a sign that her sudden explosion took the town by surprise. (Instead, Entertainer Of The Year went to Cody Johnson.) Langley currently has the #1 and #2 songs on the Hot 100, with "Choosin' Texas" at #1 and "Be Her" at #2. On the show, Langley performed "Be Her."
Other performers on last night's show included Lainey Wilson, Zach Top, Parker McCollum and Lee Ann Womack, Cody Johnson, and Kane Brown. Shania Twain hosted.
