USA, 2015, contemporary country

Kacey Musgraves – Pageant Material: This is the catchiest country album I’ve ever heard, and it’s certainly one of the most self aware. I mean, she’s proud of who she is and where she’s from, and it is from that place of security that she can poke fun at not only herself but her heritage. This is such a fun, warm album that everyone should give a chance. Kacey is weed-smoking trailer-trash, but she’s 100% real. Like Sturgill Simpson in “Old King Coal”, she doesn’t try to romanticize small towns like so many country singers in the past have. Look, people, Ms. Musgraves (the Ms. Texas that never happened) actually does care about world peace, but the problem is that she’s just not sure how she’s supposed to fix it while wearing a swimsuit on a stage.