Kacey Musgrave's "Merry Go 'Round"

     It is very rare in country music, especially what is commonly called “new country” that you find a song that criticizes Southern or small-town life.

New country singers (examples would be Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, etc.)  croon about loving life in the boondocks, motor boating on the pontoon, and speeding down dirt roads in a beat-up truck. Their tunes are energetic, happy-go-lucky, and always remind me of summertime. And as for the sad songs, they are more often than not about disillusioned love. But very rarely do the songs reflect negatively upon country life.

This is why Kacey Musgraves’s single, “Merry Go ‘Round,” caught my attention the first time I heard it on the radio.

Musgraves shows us that small town life isn’t always the easygoing lifestyle that her fellow country singers portray. Take for instance the opening lines of the song:

“If you ain’t got two kids by twenty-one

you’re probably going a die alone,

at least that’ s what tradition’s told you.”

The song continues on in this tone, questioning this “tradition” that dominates the small town (or perhaps towns?) that Musgraves sings of.  This tradition perpetuates on the symbolic “broken merry go ‘round,” and its riders “just like dust…settle in this town.”

               

        “Merry Go ‘Round” is interesting and well-written. Aside from the symbols of the merry go round and dust, there is, most notably, the clever wordplay of “merry,” marry,” and “Mary,” as well as the twisted nursery rhyme allusions in the last few lines of the song.

               

        Perhaps Musgraves’s “Merry Go ‘Round” could be compared to Carrie Underwood’s hit, “Blown Away”. The latter song tells the story of a girl who makes no effort to save her alcoholic father when a tornado comes sweeping toward their Oklahoma town. Like Musgraves does in “Merry Go ‘Round,” Underwood sings of dysfunctional families and an unhappy environment that the song’s protagonist is powerless to.

              

        But even then, the songs have distinct differences. “Blown Away” has such a dark, strong tone that the power behind the song almost overshadows the emotion. Don’t get me wrong, the song is moving, but something about it just doesn’t feel genuine.

“Merry Go ‘Round” is heartbreaking because of its domesticity. Because of Musgraves’s soft-spoken voice. She manages to sound both cynical and defeated. The song is heartbreaking because it feels real. Musgraves is honest with us, and it is obvious that this song is, to some extent, personal. You can hear the emotion in Musgraves’s voice.

I could go on for quite a while about this song, but you really just need to listen to it. Just once. Let Kacey Musgraves speak for herself. I will warn you though, the song is almost maddeningly catchy. I heard about twenty seconds of it on the radio once, and I had the chorus running through my head the rest of the day.

As much as I love happy-go-lucky country hits such as Little Big Town’s “Pontoon” and Luke Bryan’s “Drunk on You,” “Merry Go ‘Round” was a refreshing change.  While the song’s melancholy message may polarize some country fans, Kacey Musgraves is not someone who should be underestimated. She is certainly someone whose music I will be keeping an eye on, and I cannot wait until she releases a full CD. It is safe to say that when that time comes, there will be a review of that CD on this blog.

Whether that review is positive or negative, whether her Musgraves’s next songs live up to the originality of “Merry Go ‘Round,” remains to be seen.

 Kacey Musgraves’s single, "Merry Go ‘Round"is a light orange. Unexpected and attention-grabbing, but understated in its lightness.