Kellychristinephoto.com

Where the weed at?

By Kelly Dearmore

This week -- yesterday, in fact -- the Golden, Texas native Kacey Musgraves finally releases her eagerly-awaited debut album, Same Trailer, Different Park. Indeed, it's fitting that she's from a town named Golden, as the new album is but the most recent example of some serious Solid Country Gold that's come from the younger generation of major-label maidens.

To add to that, one of Miranda Lambert's fellow Pistol Annies cohort, the uber-talented Ashley Monroe, released 2013's first, great major-label country album, the stellar Like a Rose, just a couple of weeks ago.

See also: With "Merry Go 'Round," Kacey Musgraves Starts Writing the Future of Country

More »

via Flickr

Since contributing to Carrie Underwood's 2007 "Last Name," 2012 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year Luke Laird has netted almost a dozen chart-toppers, penning hits for everyone from Eric Church to Little Big Town and Miranda Lambert. This year, on top of work with Tim McGraw and Little Big Town, he'll have a handful of tunes on Kacey Musgraves's Nashville debut, Same Trailer Different Park. We talked to Laird about his songwriting process, his love of hip-hop, and what it's like to work with Kacey.

See also: With "Merry Go 'Round," Kacey Musgraves Starts Writing the Future of Country

More »

Whether or not you've heard Kacey Musgraves's voice, if you watch ABC's Nashville, you've probably heard one of her songs.

Written with her friend Trent Dabbs and selected by the show's musical director, T-Bone Burnett, "Undermine" first appears in the second episode, when pop country star Juliette Barnes attempts to prove to local legend Deacon Claybourne she's more than a manufactured celebrity. Together, they drive to a plot of land once owned by Tammy Wynette and start writing on a hand-stitched quilt in the bed of a vintage Chevrolet.

More »