Music Review: Pageant Material - Kacey Musgraves

Album: Pageant Material

Artiste: Kacey Musgraves

Label: Mercury Records

Price: Rs 395/-

Rating: 3.5/5

Country/Soft Rock: Texan country guitar-slinger and singer Kacey Musgraves is a critically-acclaimed name in Nashville circles, thanks to her endearing vocal style and earnest and yearning yet playful lyrics. This multi-instrumentalist (like any good country musician, she mastered the banjo at an early age) became rather adept at the guitar and it is now a fixture on her live shows. She has in interviews cited Alison Krauss as one of her chief influences and that is apparent throughout the album not by way of ripping off the latter, but as a means of paying homage. High Time opens the proceedings on an upbeat note, and yet, Musgraves and co-writers Luke Laird and Shane McAnally keep it concise at just under three minutes. Dime Store Cowgirl is pure Americana, with lyrics like 'I've had my picture made with Willie Nelson/ Stayed in a hotel with a pool/Driven through New Mexico where the saguaro cactus grow/ And I felt really small under Mount Rushmore.' Elsewhere, she checks in on her country credentials when she sings, 'Slept in a room with the ghost of Gram Parsons/ Drank some wine I can't afford/ Went to San Antonio to the riverwalk and rodeo/ Seen the white cliffs of Dover from the shore.' The other tracks shine as well. Whether it's the stirring title track Pageant Material, or Biscuits or the really nice love paean Somebody To Love, you really cannot go wrong with this disc. Load up the CD tray, turn up the volume and let the good times roll!