KACEY MUSGRAVES

ACEY MUSGRAVES ISN’T AFRAID TO GO THERE. She’ll say the thing you might be thinking but would never voice out loud: sometimes marriage means insecurity; it’s easier to get high than to talk through conflict; life would be better if we could go back to being kids. The genre-blending Nashville-based artist, 33, has managed to carve her own path in an industry that rewards women for replicating the looks, sounds, and messages of existing stars, launching her career in 2012 with the single “Merry Go ’Round,” about the oppressive expectations of small-town life. Two country albums and a Christmas record later, her Grammy-winning smash album about falling in love with her then husband—only to go through a divorce and put out the Shakespeare-inspired heartbreak record last fall.