Kacey Musgrave performs Dry Spell during the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 17.Chris Pizzello/The Associated Press
There are two rules for attending her Middle of Nowhere tour, country-pop singer Kacey Musgraves told the crowd last night at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena: Be a good person (which the 38-year-old expressed more profanely) and have a good time. “I think Canadians have a spicy side, and I’d like to see that tonight,” she said.
Easy enough. Musgraves had everyone on their feet as she tore through a 21-song set spanning four of her seven albums. Featured heavily were tunes from the tour’s namesake, Middle of Nowhere, released in May to generally positive reception. A few early numbers from 2013’s Same Trailer Different Park, as well as a host of songs off the Grammy-sweeping Golden Hour (the album won every category it was nominated for in 2019, including album of the year) garnered the loudest applause.
The Texas native’s setup – and getup – was decidedly country. The circular stage featured a star-shaped platform and a spinning outer rim that Musgraves trotted along throughout the show (fittingly to her song Merry Go ‘Round). Behind it was an elevated trailer-like structure that she emerged from during her opener, Everybody Wants to be a Cowboy. Musgraves wore a simple denim outfit of barely-there shorts with a Texas-sized belt buckle, a button-up shirt and a tan-coloured cowboy hat with red-bottomed Christian Louboutin boots to match. A bedazzled star on her cheek and glitter in her hair sparkled under the spotlights.
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Musgraves kept the audience engaged with her signature pitch-perfect falsetto, crystal-clear tone and strong vibrato. Her vocals never faltered during the nearly two-hour-long set, staying measured and smooth (like Mexico Honey) and cutting through the echoey arena.
Her seven-piece band featured a drummer, a pianist, a bassist, an accordionist and other members who played all manner of instruments, among them a twangy nylon-string guitar, a keytar and a steel guitar. The ensemble sounded tight and composed, never seeming to put a note wrong.
Ever the entertainer – Musgraves started her career as a child performing at Western pageants, fairs and festivals – the singer surprised and delighted the crowd with a few tricks up her denim sleeve. Several moments were punctuated by pyrotechnics, including the fireworks that preceded Musgraves’s entrance and the shimmering cascade of sparkler-like illuminations that surrounded her during Golden Hour.
But the biggest (literally) surprise of all came when a massive pair of mirrored testicles descended from the ceiling during the upbeat Rhinestoned. “This is what it looks like when nobody tells me no,” Musgraves said, eventually taking a seat on them and finishing the song suspended above the crowd. “Aren’t they nice disco balls?”
In another context, with another artist, a prop like that might feel gimmicky, but Musgraves owned it. The same goes for the short line dance she did alongside her accordion player during Uncertain Texas and the ad-libbed lines calling out buzz-killing dudes and loser boyfriends she peppered through High Horse and Back on the Wagon.
It helps that Musgraves is a bona fide musician. Before she became a chart-topping sensation, she was a songwriter penning tunes for Nashville stars including Martina McBride (When You Love a Sinner) and Miranda Lambert (Mama’s Broken Heart). As a nod to her roots, Musgraves played acoustic guitar for about half of the set, reminding the audience that behind the rodeo and rhinestones, she’s a singer and songwriter at heart.