Kacey Musgraves Brings a Mellow "Slow Burn" to 'Colbert'

A month ago, I wrote that Kacey Musgraves was the "most talented songwriter in mainstream pop-country"; earlier this week, I got around to saying what I actually meant: "Kacey Musgraves is a genius." The 29-year-old Texan's third album, Golden Hour, is out today and it's a fucking masterpiece. Here, look, have the stream. There's no excuse now.

Last night, a couple hours before the album's official release, Musgraves appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, performing the album's first song, "Slow Burn." She stayed true to the sound of the record: pared-down, full-band, a little banjo behind the layers of acoustics. She could have picked any number of more immediately impactful songs to play on basic cable—a tear-jerking piano performance of "Rainbow" or a disco-country "High Horse" in front of a sparkly set, for example. I'm sure we'll get both of those before this cycle's over, but Golden Hour isn't about those sorts of ideas as much as it's about just sitting around and thinking about how the world is kinda beautiful sometimes. "Slow Burn" is as good an introduction to that on TV as it is on the album.

Watch the performance at the top of the page.

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