Kacey Musgraves Says She Never Left Country Music, Covers Hank Sr.

Kacey Musgraves is returning to the first label that signed her, Lost Highway Records, and she’s celebrating with a cover of the Hank Williams song that gave the imprint its name.

Lost Highway isn’t a new label, but an old Universal Music Group Nashville subsidiary that was founded in 2000, folded in 2012, and revived this year. During its original run, Lost Highway released a variety of acclaimed records in the intersecting areas of country, alternative, rock, and roots music, perhaps most notably the Grammy-winning soundtrack for the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Musgraves signed her first label deal with Lost Highway in 2011, but she would be the label’s last signee. When Lost Highway folded the following year, it was subsumed by another UMG subsidiary, Mercury Nashville, which released Musgraves’ first three albums. Her next three were released by MCA Nashville in partnership with Interscope, which are also UMG subsidiaries. 

Musgraves’ move back to Lost Highway is effectively a lateral one that keeps her under the UMG umbrella, though not without its personal and poignant aspects. “It’s a no-brainer. It made me very emotional, because it brought back so many memories and an aerial view of looking at all I’ve gotten to do, all the wonderful people I’ve gotten to meet, and the songs that have come out of that,” Musgraves said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

And while the signing news, and Musgraves’ cover of Williams’ “Lost Highway,” might suggest that all this is signaling a “return to country” for Musgraves, she was adamant that: First of all, she never left, and second, she’s not going to stop being the same adventurous artist she’s always been. 

“While some might think of it as a ‘return,’ I want to make it super clear that I never left,” Musgraves said. “It’s always been a home base, and it’s truly where I’m sonically the most happy. But since the beginning, I’ve always had an exploratory foot out the door a little bit, allowing myself to infuse all these other genres that speak to me.”

She went on to call this new chapter “a true passion project for me,” adding, “In this world where there are so many varying degrees of genre, to have a home for artists who are left of center is necessary.”

That said, Musgraves also noted that some of the songs she’d been writing lately did harken back to classic country. “I love being in a period of time where I’m not rushed by a deadline and have the space to mosey and poke around,” she said, adding: “I’ve been feeling really good playing around with some more — I want to say ‘traditional’ — but at the same time, there always has to be a modern edge there in some way. There has to be a balance between tradition and future.”

Of the intentions that have defined her career up to this point, and going forward, Musgraves added: “I’m not going to present a watered-down version of myself to be accepted. I’ll fucking shovel shit for a living at a horse barn, and I’ll be really happy. Or I’ll just be a songwriter.”