Kacey Musgraves Contributes Endearing ‘Kansas City Star’ to Roger Miller Tribute Album [Listen]
Kacey Musgraves is a devout fan of classic country music, and she's paying tribute to one of the genre's greatest icons with a cover of "Kansas City Star" for King of the Road: A Tribute to Roger Miller.
Musgraves has a knack for seamlessly spinning a traditional sound into something that feels modern and fresh, and that's true on her rendition of this 1960s Roger Miller classic. The budding superstar changes up the arrangement slightly at the beginning, inviting the first verse with a simple guitar before picking up the tempo with steel guitar and drums, like in Miller's original recording.
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Musgraves was a perfect choice to capture the witty nature of the song, and she would do Miller proud with her yodeling. "Kansas City Star" is one of Miller's many Top 10 hits and a clever plot about a man who turns down a job in Omaha to remain the star of a children's show in Kansas City. The song reached the No. 7 slot on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in 1965.
Always willing to pay tribute to the icons that paved the way before her, Musgraves also participated in the Elton John tribute album Revamp & Restoration by covering "Roy Rogers," and she teamed up with husband Ruston Kelly for a heartfelt rendition of the Johnny Cash poem written for his wife June Carter Cash titled "To June, This Morning" for Johnny Cash Forever Words: The Music.
The "High Horse" singer will travel across the globe throughout 2018 and 2019 on her headlining Oh, What a World Tour. She kicks off the first leg of the trip in October in Europe and brings the trek to the U.S. and Canada in January of 2019.
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