Since stepping onto the country scene with Same Trailer, Different Park, Kacey Musgraves has credited singer-songwriters such as John Prine, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson with shaping her own path as one of country music's purveyors of wit and wisdom. Now, over a decade into her own recording career, Musgraves has no shortage of her own devotees -- rising country stars raised on the whipsmart lyricism of songs such as "Follow Your Arrow," "Merry Go Round" and "Dime Store Cowgirl."
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Among those is Tennessee native Rachel McIntyre Smith who says the School of Musgraves was a huge inspiration when writing her debut EP Glory Daze. Smith says it was Musgraves' song "Biscuits," a breezy takedown of gossipy busybodies, from 2015's Pageant Material, that hooked her.
"I remember listening to this song at 2 a.m. in my college library my freshman year," Smith tells Wide Open Country. "I was procrastinating studying for finals, I had a paper that was due at 8 a.m. the next day that I just did not want to start writing and so I thought it was a perfect time to start listening to this song that I'd heart people talking about. So I looked up 'Biscuits' and I was just blown away-- the puns that were in it, it was just so lighthearted and fun and clever. It reminded me a lot of the country classics that I'd grown up listening to. I went on to listen to that whole album that night when I was supposed to be writing my paper and it just blew me away. It helped me figure out my voice as a songwriter and I think you can hear a lot of Kacey Musgraves' influence on my debut EP Glory Daze."
Smith recently performed a portion of "Biscuits" exclusively for the Wide Open Country audience.
The songs from Smith's EP Glory Daze and 2023 record Glory Daze (Acoustic), which re-imagines tracks from her 2022 release, are steeped in the homespun wisdom ("The Woulds") and small town dynamics ("Queen of Our Hometown," "Miss Highfalutin") that would make Musgraves and her peers and heroes proud.
For more information on Rachel McIntyre Smith, visit her official website or follow her on her socials.
