Mercury NashvilleKacey Musgraves wanted to have a fabulous album release party for her sophomore project, Pageant Material, so she enlisted the drag queens of Nashville gay bar, Play, to perform the album for her friends and industry insiders. The party took place Monday night in front of a capacity crowd, but Kacey and her publicist friend, Elice Cuff, dreamed up the party during Elice’s recent birthday bash at Play.
Before the album release show got started, Kacey recalled, “We were here for [Elice’s] birthday, slightly inebriated, and she leaned over and was like, ‘You have to do something here for your album.’ And I was like, ‘That is a brilliant idea.’ So, it’s all Elice’s idea, and it was a really good one.”
The drag queens performed most of the tracks from Kacey’s album, including the lead single, “Biscuits.” In between the performances, Kacey took the stage to introduce each song while decked out in a black, sequined jacket and satiny, black hot pants.
As for the venue of her party, Kacey has been a regular at Play ever since she moved to Nashville several years ago. She went to a few gay bars while living in Austin, Texas, but none of them compared with the drag shows she saw in Music City.
“Whenever I came here, I just fell in love with it,” Kacey says. “So, it’s kind of cool to come back and have an event here like this. A country music event at a drag bar. I mean, it’s kind of brilliant. I can’t wait to see what the girls are wearing. I’m pretty sure they’re tucking and taping right now getting ready.”
Of course, Kacey’s CMA-winning Song of the Year, “Follow Your Arrow,” has become an anthem for gay country fans in the past few years. She’s proud to help make the LGBT community feel at home within the country format.
Kacey says, “I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say that they can walk a little bit taller because they’re a big country music fan and now they have something that really resonates with what they’re going through. I see gay couples at my shows and they feel like they can be themselves, like, holding each other and singing, and that just makes me feel really good. I really am proud of that.”
Look for Kacey’s new album, Pageant Material, to hit stores June 23. She’s hosting another party at Nashville’s Acme Feed & Seed tonight to launch Texas-based vodka brand, Zodiac.
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