Texas-born country music star Kacey Musgraves has announced she’ll be playing three surprise shows at historic Gruene Hall just days after her new album, Middle of Nowhere, drops on all platforms. Adding to the unexpected show dates, Musgraves plans to perform with three brothers who were detained by ICE and held at a pair of South Texas migrant detention centers for two weeks earlier this year.
“Kacey Musgraves. Middle of Nowhere. Live at Gruene Hall with special guests The Mariachi Brothers Antonio, Caleb and Joshua Gámez-Cuellar,” the flyer reads. The shows will take place on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, May 3-5. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 28.
The detention of the Mexican-born Gámez-Cuellar brothers and their parents drew national headlines in early March, after they had already been held in immigration detention for more than a week. U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) detained the family, who live in McAllen, in the Rio Grande Valley, during a routine check-in with immigration officials.
The family is currently seeking asylum. Parents, Luis Antonio Gámez and Emma Guadalupe Cuellar, were taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, about an hour south of San Antonio, along with their two younger sons, Caleb and Joshua. But Antonio, who had recently turned 18, was sent to a different detention facility in Raymondville.
It was the brothers’ talents as mariachi musicians that brought the Gámez-Cuellar family’s story to national attention. Less than a year before ICE took the family into custody, the two older brothers had traveled to Washington D.C. at the invitation of U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the Republican congresswoman whose district stretches from McAllen to just outside San Antonio.
Antonio and Caleb had traveled to the nation’s capital with their award-winning McAllen High School mariachi troupe, Mariachi Oro, after winning the state championship. While in DC, Mariachi Oro performed at Carnegie Hall and posed for photographs on the front steps of the capitol in their vibrant blue trajes.
The Gámez-Cuellar family’s detention eight months later spurred a massive public outcry, led by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, who had visited with the mariachi group during their trip to Washington in June 2025. Ultimately, through Castro’s intercession, as well as De La Cruz’s, the Gámez-Cuellar family was released from detention on March 9. De La Cruz was on hand for Antonio’s release from Raymondville, while her opponent, Tejano superstar Bobby Pulido, personally transported the rest of the Gámez-Cuellar family back to the Valley in his campaign-branded vans.
And now, the genre-bending, Grammy Award-winning Musgraves is set to perform with the three brothers at the oldest, most storied music hall in Texas. It’s not the first time that Musgraves has incorporated mariachi music into her performances. Last September, Musgraves collaborated with Mariachi Oro de América during a tour stop in Mexico City, where she covered Selena’s “Tú, Solo Tú.” Musgraves’ sixth studio album, “Middle of Nowhere,” releases on all platforms on Friday, May 1.