There’s a record that came out May 1st that sounds like Texas road miles across different times of day — Norteño in the afternoon heat, Zydeco as the light drops, bluegrass coming on cold by evening, and a Willie Nelson cameo somewhere in the middle that makes the whole thing feel like it was always going to end up back here. That record is Middle of Nowhere, Kacey Musgraves’s sixth studio album, and the Middle of Nowhere Tour arrives at Moody Center in Austin on Wednesday, October 7, with William Beckmann opening. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
The title is borrowed from a road sign — the kind that doubles as a civic address in rural Texas — in Golden, where Musgraves grew up. Unincorporated, under three hundred people, no stoplight, Wood County about a hundred miles east of Dallas, the kind of flat land where you can see the weather building from a long way off. The album doesn’t wear its origins as costume; it earns them. Miranda Lambert sings on it. Billy Strings plays. Gregory Alan Isakov adds something quieter and more interior. Nelson is there because, with this artist, of course he is — Musgraves has always been one of those rare acts whose Texas bona fides survive a commercial ceiling that now stretches to Madison Square Garden for two nights without one canceling the other out.
She broke this material in correctly: three nights at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, May 3 through 5, with mariachi musicians alongside her, before the full arena push began. Gruene Hall has been open since 1878. Playing new arena-scale songs there — with mariachis — before opening the tour in Chicago on her 38th birthday (August 21, United Center) is either instinct or very good judgment. Probably both.
For the October 7 Austin date, the specific opener is William Beckmann — a Fredericksburg native, Hill Country Texas in his bones — which gives the night a Texas-on-Texas character that’s more than incidental. The October 8 show is the second of two consecutive Austin nights at Moody Center.
Moody Center holds fifteen thousand. For a Wednesday in October with eight Grammy wins behind you and an album built to be heard loud in a large dark room, that’s exactly the right size.
Tickets are on sale now at Moody Center ATX. Clear bag policy in effect. No age restrictions. Moody Center is located at 2001 Robert Dedman Dr, Austin, TX 78712.