Singer Who Beat Out Cardi B, Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone for a Grammy Plays Shanghai on Wednesday
Yeah, yeah. The Grammys. The people who thought Beck’s -50 bpm bummer “Morning Phase” was better than “Beyoncé,” have never noticed a songwriter by the name of Bob Dylan and gave the first heavy metal Grammy to… Jethro Tull. (“But that flute rocks, man!”) These guys have the credibility of Donald Trump opining about string theory. But the industry crapweasels got it right this time: “Golden Hour” is a masterpiece of country songwriting and performance. It lives in a place outside the boundaries that have turned Nashville into a formulaic hackfest. For starters, Musgraves is a woman in a genre that has all but banished the distaff from popular playlists. And where cynical country songwriters troll for hits while religiously avoiding anything that might piss off their local evangelist, Musgraves is playful and frank about sex, drinking, "smoking" and loneliness. This is the first and only China date for Musgraves, who returns to the U.S. after Wednesday, where she’ll be a headliner this summer at Outside Lands, Lollapalooza, Bonaroo, the Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Austin City Limits Music Festival, among others. If she ever returns to China, it’s going to be at some place like the Mercedes-Benz Arena, so catch the best of American singing and songwriting at an intimate venue while you can, and enjoy a “Slow Burn”: In Tennessee, the sun's goin' down But in Beijing, they're heading out to work You know the bar down the street don't close for an hour We should take a walk and look at all the flowers Tickets are still available on SmartTicket. Get yours here.