Kacey Musgraves returns to Coachella after 7 years

Kacey Musgraves returned to Coachella on Saturday, April 18, playing Weekend 2 in Indio for the first time since her 2019 festival set. (rollingstone.com) Festival organizers added Musgraves to the second-weekend schedule on Tuesday, April 14. She was booked for the Mojave tent from 3 to 3:50 p.m. on Saturday. (rollingstone.com) (desertsun.com) The Desert Sun reported that Musgraves teased the appearance with a social post captioned “Somewhere on the way to Coachella.” Weekend 2 ran April 17-19 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (desertsun.com) (coachella.com) Her appearance doubled as an album rollout. Rolling Stone reported that her seventh studio album, *Middle of Nowhere*, is due May 1 on Lost Highway Records. (rollingstone.com) That album has 13 tracks and includes collaborations with Willie Nelson, Miranda Lambert, Billy Strings and Gregory Alan Isakov. Musgraves released its lead single, “Dry Spell,” in March. (rollingstone.com) (usatoday.com) Weekend 2 at Coachella has increasingly become its own news cycle, not just a rerun of Weekend 1. The Desert Sun noted that Jack White filled the festival’s surprise slot in the first weekend, while Musgraves took that role in the second. (desertsun.com) The official Coachella site also pushed both weekends as livestream events across seven stages on YouTube. That setup has made late additions and set changes visible well beyond the desert. (coachella.com) Local coverage from the Orange County Register said Musgraves made her entrance on horseback. Art Threat and NME reported that she used the set to debut four songs from *Middle of Nowhere*. (ocregister.com) (artthreat.net) (nme.com) Seven years after her last Coachella performance, Musgraves came back in a smaller tent, with a shorter afternoon slot, and turned it into a live preview for the album arriving May 1. (rollingstone.com) (nme.com)