New Music

'Middle of Nowhere' boasts guest turns from Miranda Lambert and Willie Nelson

(photo: Christine Sutton)

On Middle of Nowhere , Kacey Musgraves doesn’t so much return to her roots as redraw the map entirely — one where solitude isn’t a pit stop between relationships but the destination itself. Written in the aftermath of a breakup and shaped by long stretches of intentional aloneness, her seventh LP and debut for Lost Highway finds her toggling between self-sufficiency, mischief and the occasional bout of well-earned chaos.

The opening title track sets the tone within seconds: sunlit acoustic strums, a low-end thump and Musgraves calmly declaring, “It’s just me and me and that’s all I need.” It’s both a mission statement and, as the record unfolds, a thesis she keeps testing.…