August 21: country music artist Kacey Musgraves - "Merry Go Round" - is 25-years-old today.

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Kacey Lee Musgraves was born August 21, 1988. She grew up on Golden Texas, 80 miles east of Dallas. She was attracted to showbiz at an early age. While still in elementary school, she became a regular on the Texas opry circuit.

One of perhaps 10 acts on a Saturday night, she’d take the stage in a fringed cowgirl get-up to sing a couple of classics — “I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart,” “Your Cheating Heart” — and then she’d sign pictures for the senior citizens who made up most of the audience.

After graduating from high school, she moved to Austin, self-released three albums and got a spot on the reality-competition show “Nashville Star.” She then moved to Nashville, where she worked as a singing Cinderella at kids’ birthday parties, and had her songs recorded by established singers. She also assembled a circle of songwriting partners including the hit-making songwriters Shane McAnally and Luke Laird, who co-produced her album with her.

Musgraves joined Lady Antebellum on their Own the Night 2012 tour in the United Kingdom. She also signed with Mercury Records in 2012 and released her solo debut single "Merry Go 'Round." The song is included on her album Same Trailer Different Park, which was produced by Shane McAnally and Luke Laird and released on March 19, 2013.

She also co-wrote Miranda Lambert's 2013 single "Mama's Broken Heart." "Undermine,” a song co-written by Musgraves and Trent Dabbs, was featured in the ABC television series Nashville on October 17, 2012. 

Musgraves was nominated for four awards at the 48th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, including Female Vocalist of the Year. Kacey's fourth studio album, Same Trailer Different Park, debuted at number 2, selling 42,000 copies.

Musgraves and her peers are taking a cue from Willie Nelson and opening up about

their appreciation for reefer. “Merry Go ’Round,” the lead single off Same Trailer Different Park, addresses getting high as part of a larger need for distraction when you’re in a rut: “Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay / Brother’s hooked on mary jane / And Daddy’s hooked on Mary, two doors down.”

Musgraves insists she doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as a country artist, that her tastes run above and beyond. Lately, she says, she’s been really into Etta James. “I love ‘A Sunday Kind of Love.’ It’s just so beautiful, and such a great thing to say: ‘I want a Sunday kind of love, a love to last past Saturday night.’” And in concert, she and her band have been covering Roy Orbison’s “You Got It.”

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For more about Kacey, visit her Website at –

http://kaceymusgraves.com/

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