Kacey Musgraves Honors Merle Haggard With Timely ‘Rainbow Stew’ Cover [Watch]

Kacey Musgraves has always been a fan of the classic country icons, and recently she got to pay tribute to one of the greats, Merle Haggard.

On April 6, the one-year anniversary of his death, nearly 30 country artists got together at an event dubbed Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard to celebrate Haggard's memory and his influence on the genre by performing some of his songs. Musgraves got the honor of performing his tune “Rainbow Stew,” for which her throwback style was a perfect fit.

The artist is clearly a fan of the song, walking out with excitement to perform it and singing it with a smile. In fact, Musgraves says its message ended up being as fitting for 2017 as it was for 1981 when it was originally released.

“Whenever I dug it out and kind of dusted it off — I knew the song, but I hadn’t really listened to the lyrics in a while,” she says. “I was like, ‘Oh my God’ — it’s very progressive and very in line with what we’re going on in the world right now. I thought it would be something cool to say and sing.”

The tune is a tongue-in-cheek declaration of hope for a better future when war is over and the “President does what he says he’ll do.” It was the lead-off single from Haggard’s live album Rainbow Stew Live at Anaheim Stadium and hit No. 4 on the country charts.

Other artists who performed at the Haggard tribute included Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney, Loretta Lynn and more. Check out Musgraves’ full performance above.

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