Among my family and friends (though my family more than anything) there's this myth that I don't like country music. Part of this is self inflicted, as I spend an awful lot of time complaining about it. The reality, however, is that I actually quite like country. In fact, my favorite album last year was a country record (I Like to Keep Myself in Pain by Kelly Hogan, to be exact). But while I like Country, I hate the generic, recycled pop that passes for it 90% of the time on radio. The music out of Nashville has devolved into a formulaic genre crowded with bland music, mediocre vocals and tropey songwriting that has justifiably become the butt of a very large national joke. The big labels have taken over the vast majority of the genre, and the only the music from it that gets any sort of publicity is exactly what I'm complaining about. Unless it's specifically pointed out to me (or I'm on one of my occasional alternative country benders), I tend to avoid country music altogether.
So all that being said, I'm glad that Kacey Musgrave's March release Same Trailer, Different Park was brought to my attention. Signed by Mercury Nashville (one of the largest country labels in the world) and a frequent opening act to Miranda Lambert, I had no need whatsoever to pay her any mind. Yet for all my grievances with popular country today, Musgraves album is a very different sort of country record than what typically comes out of that scene.
The record opens not with a bang, but a whimper. Silver Linings is a fairly generic darkest-before-the-dawn type songs with blase` music. On My House, the second track, things begin to pick up. This is where Musgraves music really begins to set itself apart from the pop-country herd. My House is driven not by barley-there acoustic guitar chords, but by a wailing harmonica that would be more comfortable on a Bob Dylan record than a Taylor Swift one. Other tracks, such as Merry Go Round, Dandelion, Step Off and It is What It Is veer closer to bluegrass than traditional country with banjos, steel guitars and gentle to non-existent percussion leading the way. I Miss You smacks of old, Patsy Cline style honky-tonk while tracks Blowin Smoke and Stupid pack enough of a rock and roll wallop that they would comfortably be called alternative country, were they performed by someone who hadn't already established herself as a pop artist. Even though there are a few fairly generic Nashville twangs on this record, Musgraves does a very good job showcasing the diversity that country music has to offer across the record's 12 tracks. Though it doesn't work with every sound she attempts, her airy, pretty voice does a good job carrying most tunes and establishes her as one of the better singers in her genre.
And there's no. Fucking. Auto-tune.
Though her music is solid, Musgrave's real strength is in her songwriting. On this record, the folksy nostalgia for rural America and Disney style love songs that pollute modern country are replaced by more realistic themes. The track Merry Go 'Round might well be the most poignantly accurate song I've ever heard about life in small town America.
"Mama's hooked on Mary Kay.
Brother's hooked on Mary Jane.Daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down.Mary, Mary quite contrary.We get bored, so, we get married
Just like dust we settled in this town"
Though Musgraves is never hostile towards small towns (which I can only assume, though can't confirm that she grew up in), she ditches the notion that rural Americans are always the best of Americans. Instead, she shines light on the darker underbellies of addiction, isolation and intolerance that exist there right alongside the strong attachments to family and community solidarity typically hyped by country songwriters. In Blowin' Smoke, Musgraves sings from the perspective of a diner waitress gossiping about her coworkers' lives. It exposes another the flip side of rural life: everyone might know you, but that also means that they all know and talk about your business. That her and her coworkers all snark about the girl who leaves town while professing their desires to change their own lots implies a sense of jealousy, made all the more artful because it's never explicitly stated. Some of the themes on this record are strongly reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen's more story driven work: loveless marriages made all too young, decaying small towns and the broken dreams that lie therein.
Of course, that isn't to say that all of the songs here are negative. Step Off is a defiant cry of independence directed toward anyone trying to tie down Musgrave's sense of freedom. The aptly named, It is What it Is relates a couple inexplicably drawn to each other in spite of all the reasons they shouldn't be. And one of the album's more impressive lyrical tracks, Follow Your Arrows, encourages listeners to follow their hearts in spite of the judgement of others. "Just 'cause you can't beat em, don't mean you should join em." The album says of drinking, following ones faith, and even generally speaking one's mind. Refreshingly, Musgraves bucks the anti-feminist, machismo thinking that dominates much of the scene when she even encourages her listeners to follow whatever sexual impulses they have: single, married, gay or straight.
This record is by no means perfect. There are times when it sounds a bit generic, or when Musgraves's exceptional songwriting fails her. But overall, this is a fantastic album that really showcases what the genre can be at its finest. Musgrave demonstrates skill at crafting a variety of musical composition, and a passion for songwriting that makes her one of the best storytellers in music today, country or otherwise. Same Trailer, Different Park is a solid album that I would recommend both for country listeners, and rock fans more skeptical of the genre.
Track List
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