In Concert, Kacey Musgraves' 'star-crossed: unveiled' Is Lovely, But Needs More Concept

Divorce has made for some pretty great albums over the years. From Frank Sinatra's "In The Wee Small Hours" and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" to Nas' "Life is Good" and Adele's "30," artists across all genres have turned pain into poetry in remarkable, long-lasting ways. The same is now true of Kacey Musgraves, whose latest album, "star-crossed," details in a stark and celestial way her divorce from fellow country singer Ruston Kelly.

It was her relationship with Kelly that inspired much of "Golden Hour," her 2018 Grammy-winning album that catapulted Musgraves into more mainstream success. And now it's her divorce that has inspired "star-crossed" and the tour that accompanies it, which turns out to be Musgraves' first headlining arena tour.

Playing to a sold-out, vaccinated crowd at Boston's TD Garden this week, Musgraves weaved together a narrative that, like "star-crossed," charts the wrenching, exhausting, confounding experience of falling in and out of love, and the myriad of emotions that go along with dismantling bit by bit a life with someone that you once threw your whole heart into. But of course, she infused a bit of hope into the proceedings as well.

While "Golden Hour" was a warm, country masterpiece that only loosely hinted at other genres (like the disco infused "High Horse"), "star-crossed "nearly abandoned the country sound altogether in favor of something far more ethereal, adventurous, and musically curious. In fact, the Recording Academy deemed it ineligible in most country categories at this year's Grammy Awards. Labeling Musgraves as "too this" or "not enough that" is not new. Since the beginning of her career, she's had to go against the tide of a country music industry that didn't know quite what to do with her.

She is a trailblazer in many ways, and "star-crossed" was an imperfect but nevertheless ambitious and impressive concept album that showed exactly why Musgraves is one of the most interesting artists working now. (As such, I named it one of the best albums of 2021). The album was even released with an epic, artsy short film that made the entire thing feel like a massive art project.

What does this have to do with her "star-crossed: unveiled" tour, you might ask? Well, it's just to say that my chief gripe with the tour is that it lacked the epic innovation, artistic cohesion, and theatricality that I was hoping for. The album is like a Greek tragedy of sorts, and it opens with the same lyrics that open the tour: "let me set the scene: two lovers ripped right at the seams. They woke up from the perfect dream, and then the darkness came." Performing the opening number in front of a giant flaming heart, it seemed to be the prelude to an evening that would be as epically theatrical as the album itself. But it was a promise of sorts that was never fulfilled, and I couldn't help but wish that this tour would have had more of a concept to it.

But none of these qualms have anything to do with Musgraves' performance, which was every bit as lovely – and funny – as Musgraves always is. Performance-wise, "Space Cowboy" and "camera roll" were deeply affecting, as was "hookup scene," a song in which she finds herself newly single and looking back on her marriage wishing that she knew she didn't have it so bad. "Is anybody in here having a hoe phase right now?" she asked before performing the song. "But also, protect your energy because people are nasty. Sorry, parents," she added with a laugh.

Musgraves must not only relive the pain of her divorce each night onstage, but she must also revisit the songs that she wrote when things were good. It must be an unimaginably difficult thing to revisit each night, and Musgraves' performance is infused with a quiet pain that is captivating.

But it's this quiet pain and, for the most part, quiet songs that occasionally have trouble filling up the giant space of an arena, which is also why some theatricality to the show itself would have helped matters.

She ended the show in proper fashion with a cover of Violeta Parra's "Gracias a la Vida," an anthemic prayer of a song that finds her repeatedly expressing gratitude for her life, after which she disappeared into an altar of candles while rose petals fell from above, a stunningly theatrical moment that there ought to have been more of.

But most affecting of all was the encore's final song, "Rainbow," the best song she's ever written. "Rainbow" is from "Golden Hour," and while it was originally written as a letter to herself after reading her horoscope, she later said that she hoped the song would serve as an anthem to the LGBTQ+ community (remember what I said about her ruffling feathers in the country music industry?). But as the closing number of a show that was ostensibly about picking up the pieces of your heart after a divorce, the song took on a newfound weight that was evident in each phrase of her performance of it.

So while I wanted to see more of the theatricality and innovation onstage found in the album itself, Kacey Musgraves remains one of the most enigmatic and exciting artists of her generation – with much, much more to come.

For upcoming dates in Kacey Musgraves' 'star-crossed: unveiled' tour, follow this link.