The sun is going down on the first Friday of Coachella 2019 and Kacey Musgraves is onstage in front of an outlandishly oversized disco ball attempting to introduce the spirit of country music to California’s hipsters. She is doing this via the medium of call-and-response. “Let’s see if Cali can bring the yee-haw,” she says, approaching the front of the stage. “When I say ‘yee’ you say ‘haw’… ‘Yee!’” The crowd responds with the appropriate: “Haw!” She goes again: “When I say ‘yee’ you say ‘haw’,” except this time she points the mic towards the crowd in silence. “Haw!” shout the crowd, falling right into Musgraves’ trap. She grins as she pulls the mic back to her mouth: “I didn’t say fucking yee!”
It’s a moment that captures Musgraves’ playful sense of humour, as well as her ability to teasingly win over any crowd she finds herself playing to. A few hours earlier, sitting in a hotel in Palm Springs while a stylist takes a blowdryer to her wet hair, she points out that her spot on Coachella’s main stage couldn’t be more serendipitous. “We have a slot during the literal golden hour,” she says, brimming with delight.
The Collected Works of Kevin EG Perry 