Kacey Musgraves released her latest album, Golden Hour, on Friday, and sat down with iHeartRadio to discuss the meaning behind the music.
"The title Golden Hour just seemed to sum up this chapter of my life perfectly. Not only am I from a town called Golden, Texas, but leading up to making this record, there's been a lot of beauty in my atmosphere and in my world, and I love the name," she explained. "I love the picture that pops in my head when I hear that title.
"It's also an actual song on the record, but it's just this warm, golden feeling that I'm really happy to have in my life and I found it to be a perfect title for this record."
Golden Hour features 13 new songs, including singles "Space Cowboy" and "Butterflies," and was co-written and co-produced with Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian.
MORE: Kacey Musgraves Debuts Disco-Tinged "High Horse"
Musgraves recorded the music at Sheryl Crow's studio because she wanted to get away from the "rat race of the music row studio feel" and that her surroundings at Crow's place had helped to spur musical creativity.
"She was super gracious in letting us come in and set up a creative home there in her studio, which also happens to be an incredible horse stable and saloon, and it's just got the best vibes on the planet," said Musgraves. "We really got to take our time and I got to take my time in just exploring lots of different avenues sonically and thematically.
"I'm a huge horse lover, so getting to come to the studio early in the morning, and get to ride with Sheryl, and just kind of get super charged by nature and all these beautiful animals, and then going in to record at the studio was just an experience like I've never had before."
Musgraves' new songs are inspired by the things she has experienced over the last year or two – she did recently get married, after all.
"It's a collection of songs representing some beautiful, positive change in my life, with meeting the right person and getting married. But there's also other aspects of songs on there that represent different other facets of life that inspire me too. Missing my family, figuring out what to do with a touring schedule and coming home and not seeing your friends.
"There's irreverence and attitude on 'High Horse' about a certain character that we all kind of know. And there's 'Rainbow,' that speaks to anybody with any kind of a weight on their shoulders."
"Butterflies," the second single from Golden Hour, was written right after Musgraves met her husband Ruston Kelly.
"Butterflies' is one of my favourite songs on the record. And everything from the lyrics down to the production really represents this floaty, dreamy feeling that I got as soon as he came into my life," she recalled. "I wrote this song with Natalie Hemby and Shane McNally back in 2016 in the spring when I had gotten off the road and tried to get back to my creative roots of just writing again just to write and explore new ideas. I had just met Rustin and my world had been completely flipped upside down. So this is a great sonic representation of that."
One of Musgrave's most personal songs on Golden Hour is the very first on the album, "Slow Burn." The country star said of the track: "It's kind of my most autobiographical, and it's just a really honest peek into where my head is at as a 29-year-old woman in my relationship, and in just in life in general. I talk about my grandma in that song, and how she cried whenever I pierce my nose, which is true. And, the song just gives me a really good laid back, chill feeling, which is how I'm feeling."
Original article by Taylor Fields at iHeartRadio