# Middle of Nowhere (Kacey Musgraves album)
**Middle of Nowhere** is the sixth studio album by American country singer-songwriter [Kacey Musgraves](https://www.edgepedia.org/kacey-musgraves), released on May 1, 2026 through Lost Highway Records. The 13-track, 44-minute record marks her return to classic country sounds after the pop-leaning *Golden Hour* (2018), the cinematic *Star-Crossed* (2021), and the folk-styled *Deeper Well* (2024), and it draws on her Texas roots, with norteño accordion, pedal steel, and tejano rhythms alongside traditional country instrumentation.[1](https://www.universalmusic.ca/2026/03/11/eight-time-grammy-winning-superstar-kacey-musgraves-announces-sixth-studio-album-middle-of-nowhere-set-for-release-may-1-2026/) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-of-nowhere/1883176984) • [3](https://kaceymusgraves.com/products/middle-of-nowhere-cd)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | May 1, 2026, Lost Highway Records; 13 songs, 44 minutes[1](https://www.universalmusic.ca/2026/03/11/eight-time-grammy-winning-superstar-kacey-musgraves-announces-sixth-studio-album-middle-of-nowhere-set-for-release-may-1-2026/) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-of-nowhere/1883176984) |
| Album number | Sixth studio album; Pitchfork counts it as her seventh full-length including the holiday album *A Very Kacey Christmas*[1](https://www.universalmusic.ca/2026/03/11/eight-time-grammy-winning-superstar-kacey-musgraves-announces-sixth-studio-album-middle-of-nowhere-set-for-release-may-1-2026/) • [4](https://pitchfork.com/news/kacey-musgraves-reveals-new-album-and-song/) |
| Title origin | A sign in her hometown of Golden, Texas reading "Golden, Texas: Somewhere in the middle of nowhere"[5](https://www.cpr.org/2026/03/16/on-her-new-album-kacey-musgraves-returns-home-to-the-middle-of-nowhere/) |
| Lead single | "Dry Spell," about not having had sex in 335 days; it opened at No. 15 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart with 5.3 million U.S. streams[6](https://bulletins.billboard.com/country/country_update_2026_0323.pdf) |
| Featured guests | Gregory Alan Isakov, Billy Strings, Miranda Lambert, and Willie Nelson[3](https://kaceymusgraves.com/products/middle-of-nowhere-cd) |
| Critical reception | Pitchfork scored it 7.6; a 12-review consensus compiled by Chorus.Reviews put it at 82.5/100[7](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/) • [8](https://chorus.reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere) |
| Chart performance | Debuted atop three Billboard album charts and reached the top 10 on seven rankings dated May 16, 2026[9](https://www.rttnews.com/story.aspx?Id=3652362) |
## Background and title
Musgraves grew up in Golden, Texas, a town of fewer than 200 people, before moving to Austin at 18 and later to Nashville, where she launched her career.[2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-of-nowhere/1883176984) While touring for *Deeper Well*, she found herself returning to Golden, and on a visit she noticed a sign someone had put up in the middle of town: "Golden, Texas: Somewhere in the middle of nowhere." She has said the sign "had to be a song, first of all" and became the aesthetic and emotional center of the album.[5](https://www.cpr.org/2026/03/16/on-her-new-album-kacey-musgraves-returns-home-to-the-middle-of-nowhere/)
She wrote most of the record during the longest single period of her adult life, after a breakup, and has described the album's overarching theme as aloneness and isolation. In interviews she framed the record as the harvest after a fallow season: where *Deeper Well* was about clearing out what no longer served her, *Middle of Nowhere* grew in the space she created.[10](https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/03/11/on-her-new-album-kacey-musgraves-returns-home-the-middle-of-nowhere) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-of-nowhere/1883176984)
## Music and production
**Return to country.** The album is Musgraves' first project to embrace classic country sounds since her 2013 debut *Same Trailer Different Park* and its 2015 follow-up *Pageant Material*. She worked again with longtime collaborators Josh Osborne, Luke Laird, and [Shane McAnally](https://www.edgepedia.org/shane-mcanally), the latter two of whom co-wrote her Grammy-winning song "Space Cowboy."[7](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/) • [2](https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-of-nowhere/1883176984) Four different pedal steel players are credited, and Nashville stalwart Paul Franklin plays steel guitar on most of the album's 13 tracks.[7](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/) • [11](https://apnews.com/article/55ec981220dc6beb581d854b9da2abe0)
In the studio Musgraves took a subtractive approach to production, saying her favorite thing is to mute elements one by one to find the right balance of taste and space.[12](https://pod.wave.co/podcast/all-songs-considered/interview-kacey-musgraves-on-her-new-album-middle-of-nowhere) The record draws from Texas dancehall classics and the borderlands where country meets norteño and even zydeco, and reviewers noted western swing and traditional Mexican music in its arrangements.[3](https://kaceymusgraves.com/products/middle-of-nowhere-cd) • [13](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/01/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere-review)
**Guests.** The album is feature-heavy by Musgraves' standards. [Gregory Alan Isakov](https://www.edgepedia.org/gregory-alan-isakov) contributes soft harmonies to "Coyote"; bluegrass guitarist [Billy Strings](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-strings) appears on "Everybody Wants to Be a Cowboy"; [Miranda Lambert](https://www.edgepedia.org/miranda-lambert) joins the norteño-infused waltz "Horses and Divorces," a reconciliatory duet that addresses their long-rumored discord; and Willie Nelson, whom Musgraves calls the "patriarch of truth of country music," duets on "Uncertain, TX," a Tex-Mex number with prominent cowbell.[3](https://kaceymusgraves.com/products/middle-of-nowhere-cd) • [7](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/)
## Songs
The track list runs: "Middle of Nowhere," "Dry Spell," "Back On The Wagon," "I Believe In Ghosts," "Abilene," "Coyote" (feat. Gregory Alan Isakov), "Loneliest Girl," "Everybody Wants To Be A Cowboy" (feat. Billy Strings), "Horses and Divorces" (feat. Miranda Lambert), "Uncertain, TX" (feat. [Willie Nelson](https://www.edgepedia.org/willie-nelson)), "Rhinestoned," "[Mexico Honey](https://www.edgepedia.org/mexico-honey)," and "Hell On Me."[3](https://kaceymusgraves.com/products/middle-of-nowhere-cd)
"Dry Spell," the lead single, is a comic song of unmet desire built on double entendres, opening with the line "It's been a real long 335 days."[6](https://bulletins.billboard.com/country/country_update_2026_0323.pdf) • [14](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/pop-music/the-lone-star-laments-of-kacey-musgraves) "Back on the Wagon" is a yarn about loving a loser who is supposedly reforming, and "Abilene," about a woman who leaves the titular city for better prospects, has been described as a spiritual sequel to Musgraves' 2013 song "Blowin' Smoke."[7](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/) "Loneliest Girl" and the title track show her at ease with solitude; the Associated Press highlighted "Loneliest Girl," "Horses and Divorces," and "Uncertain, TX" as the songs to repeat.[8](https://chorus.reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere) • [11](https://apnews.com/article/55ec981220dc6beb581d854b9da2abe0)
## Reception and chart performance
Critics received the album warmly. Pitchfork's Molly Mary O'Brien scored it 7.6 and called it "an expansive but focused survey of the past 50-plus years of country music and its various subgenres, with a particular emphasis on her Texas heritage."[7](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/) The Guardian called it her richest album since *Golden Hour*, and The Independent gave it a 10/10, describing a "sumptuously produced record with an enviable hit-to-miss ratio."[13](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/01/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere-review) • [15](https://anydecentmusic.com/review/14613/Kacey-Musgraves-Middle-of-Nowhere.aspx) Across 12 professional reviews, Chorus.Reviews computed a consensus score of 82.5/100, with the title song, "Loneliest Girl," and "Dry Spell" most often named as standouts.[8](https://chorus.reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere)
Commercially, the album debuted at No. 1 on three Billboard album charts and placed in the top 10 on seven rankings dated May 16, 2026.[9](https://www.rttnews.com/story.aspx?Id=3652362) "Loneliest Girl" became Musgraves' 11th entry on Billboard's country songs charts when it opened alongside the album's release.[16](https://bulletins.billboard.com/country/country_update_2026_0501.pdf) In a side-by-side comparison of the two most recent albums, Chorus.Reviews found that critics largely agreed *Middle of Nowhere* succeeds on its own modest, assured terms, returning Musgraves to roomy, rootsy terrain where solitude and wry self-possession collide.[17](https://chorus.reviews/artists/kacey-musgraves/compare/kacey-musgraves-deeper-well/vs/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere)
## References
1. [Eight-Time Grammy-Winning Superstar Kacey Musgraves Announces Sixth Studio Album Middle of Nowhere, Universal Music Canada](https://www.universalmusic.ca/2026/03/11/eight-time-grammy-winning-superstar-kacey-musgraves-announces-sixth-studio-album-middle-of-nowhere-set-for-release-may-1-2026/)
2. [Middle of Nowhere – Album by Kacey Musgraves, Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/us/album/middle-of-nowhere/1883176984)
3. [Middle of Nowhere – CD, Kacey Musgraves Official Store](https://kaceymusgraves.com/products/middle-of-nowhere-cd)
4. [Kacey Musgraves Reveals New Album Middle of Nowhere and Single, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/news/kacey-musgraves-reveals-new-album-and-song/)
5. [On her new album, Kacey Musgraves returns home, to the 'Middle of Nowhere', CPR/NPR](https://www.cpr.org/2026/03/16/on-her-new-album-kacey-musgraves-returns-home-to-the-middle-of-nowhere/)
6. [Billboard Country Update, March 23, 2026](https://bulletins.billboard.com/country/country_update_2026_0323.pdf)
7. [Kacey Musgraves: Middle of Nowhere Album Review, Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere/)
8. [Middle of Nowhere – Kacey Musgraves, Review Score, Chorus.Reviews](https://chorus.reviews/albums/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere)
9. [Kacey Musgraves' 'Middle Of Nowhere' Debuts Atop Three Billboard Album Charts, RTTNews](https://www.rttnews.com/story.aspx?Id=3652362)
10. [On her new album, Kacey Musgraves returns home, to the 'Middle of Nowhere', GPB/NPR](https://www.gpb.org/news/2026/03/11/on-her-new-album-kacey-musgraves-returns-home-the-middle-of-nowhere)
11. [Music Review: Kacey Musgraves' 'Middle of Nowhere' is where you'll want to be, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/55ec981220dc6beb581d854b9da2abe0)
12. [Interview: Kacey Musgraves on her new album, 'Middle of Nowhere', NPR Music](https://pod.wave.co/podcast/all-songs-considered/interview-kacey-musgraves-on-her-new-album-middle-of-nowhere)
13. [Kacey Musgraves: Middle of Nowhere review, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/01/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere-review)
14. [The Lone-Star Laments of Kacey Musgraves, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/pop-music/the-lone-star-laments-of-kacey-musgraves)
15. [Middle of Nowhere by Kacey Musgraves reviews, Any Decent Music](https://anydecentmusic.com/review/14613/Kacey-Musgraves-Middle-of-Nowhere.aspx)
16. [Billboard Country Update, May 1, 2026](https://bulletins.billboard.com/country/country_update_2026_0501.pdf)
17. [Deeper Well vs Middle of Nowhere, Kacey Musgraves Album Comparison, Chorus.Reviews](https://chorus.reviews/artists/kacey-musgraves/compare/kacey-musgraves-deeper-well/vs/kacey-musgraves-middle-of-nowhere)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Country and folk albums › Country albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license