Kacey Musgraves Hosts a Triumphant Homecoming at the Ryman

There's no victory lap quite like a show at the Ryman, and Kacey Musgraves took four such laps, in the form of her long-sold-out run at the Mother Church. She earned every one: She took home four Grammys in February (including Album of the Year) for her latest LP Golden Hour — she also landed the CMA Award for Album of the Year, in spite of miserable support from radio and a well-documented imbalance of power for women in the industry. The Spin had the pleasure of catching Musgraves' final show of the run on Saturday, and the feeling in the air was triumphant through and through.

Even as the doors opened, the room crackled with positive energy. The first of two openers, Skyline Motel, kicked off the evening with a tight five-song set. The gig was something a victory lap of its own for the band, a supergroup of Music Row mainstays (including Sarah Buxton, Kate York, and Musgraves' Golden Hour co-producers Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian) who occasionally come together to play shows and who just released a new song called "Do You Want Me." Though the band played to a half-empty room, the performance still drew a hearty response from the audience, in which we recognized quite a few journalists and music-biz folk.

Local favorite Natalie Prass was up next, playing her second show in town since moving back to Nashville from Virginia last year. She and her excellent four-piece band grooved through tunes from her latest LP The Future and the Past, like the funky, Prince-indebted "Oh My" and the empowerment anthem "Sisters." Prass drew from 2015's Natalie Prass, too — one highlight was a twangy take on the breakup ballad "Your Fool," which she told the crowd she first played at the now-defunct Steve's Restaurant and Bar in East Nashville.

Musgraves came on to rapturous applause, and started her set with Golden Hour's hypnotic opening track "Slow Burn." The night would be heavy on tunes from Golden Hour: Musgraves followed with "Wonder Woman" and the Grammy-winning "Butterflies." 

While she paused to acknowledge the majesty of the hallowed venue early in her set, Musgraves also implored the audience to "just fucking have fun" and led the room in a round of high-fives and middle-finger salutes. A little later, Musgraves began to dive deeper into her catalog, beginning with an extended version of her breakout hit "Merry Go ’Round" from 2013's Same Trailer Different Park.

"Even though it's about my town," she said by way of introduction, "I feel like it could be about your town, too." The crowd agreed, and sang the entire last chorus of the song without Musgraves' assistance. 

Next came one of the evening's several instrumental breaks, which gave Musgraves' crack band of players a chance to show off their considerable chops. The band played a shimmering spaghetti-Western number that segued into "High Time" off Musgraves' 2015 second album Pageant Material, featuring a fantastic nylon guitar solo from multi-instrumentalist Kai Welch. 

Musgraves didn't address the crowd much during the 19-song show, but she made all of her banter and asides count. Our inner teen got a good giggle out of her ending "Golden Hour" by singing "golden showers" — something we're pretty sure hasn't been uttered onstage often, if ever, at the Ryman.

After a noir-rock take on Pageant Material's "Die Fun," things got more intimate when Musgraves and her band came to the front of the stage for a mini-acoustic set, which included a downright ethereal take on Golden Hour standout "Oh, What a World." Musgraves remarked that, despite a handful of critics' protestations regarding the album's expanded sonic palette, the song sounded pretty damned country to her. (Bandleader Kyle Ryan's banjo performance on the song added nicely to that impression.) 

Once Musgraves hit the opening notes of "Space Cowboy" late in the set, we got the feeling we were in for a string of hits, and we were right. That tune set the tone with dramatic lighting and an appropriately spacey pedal-steel solo from "Smokin'" Brett Resnick, before leading into a guest appearance: a reprise of a much-loved duet between Musgraves and Prass on Gloria Gaynor's disco classic "I Will Survive."

Next came longtime fan favorite "Follow Your Arrow," which has been adopted by some as an LGBT anthem. Musgraves introduced it with an acknowledgement of the change in the business: "I know country music hasn't always been the most inclusive of environments, but not anymore,” she said. Appropriately enough, that song was followed by Golden Hour closing ballad "Rainbow," which prompted the audience to wave their phones in the air for an emotional sing-along.  

Musgraves' shows typically end on a high note, and this one was no exception. Skipping the encore, she closed out with Golden Hour favorite "High Horse," doubling down on the track's DayGlo country-disco feel with strobe lights and colorful beach balls bouncing through the crowd. It was a perfect ending to a stellar run of shows showcasing a bright future for country music, where it can be thoughtful, inclusive, immensely fun and upholding powerful traditions all at the same time.

See our slideshow for more photos.

In The Spin — the Scene's live review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.