Kacey Musgraves hit the stage of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night (Feb. 26), making the television debut of “Space Cowboy” from her upcoming new album, Golden Hour.
The heartbreak ballad shows a more vulnerable side of Musgraves. Many of her best-known songs have featured an acerbic wit and an observational approach to life’s small moments, but in “Space Cowboy,” she reflects sadly on a lost love that simply wasn’t to be contained.
“You can have your space, cowboy / I ain’t gonna fence you in / Go on, ride away in your Silverado / I’ll see you around again / I know my place, and it ain’t with you / Sunsets fade, and love does, too / We had our day in the sun / When a horse wants to run, ain’t no sense in closing the gate / You can have your space, cowboy,” she sings in the chorus.
Musgraves eschewed her usual frilly throwback Western costumes for a sparkly bodysuit for the Tonight Show appearance, which marked the television debut of new music from her new album. She also came out from behind her guitar and banjo, delivering her plaintive, understated vocal performance standing at the mic accompanied by a simple backdrop framed mainly by piano and banjo. See her simple, yet powerful performance in the video above.
The song draws on Musgraves’ own romantic past. She shared the story behind its inspiration in a recent post to Instagram.
“One day I was out at the barn watching this stallion charging powerfully from one end of the arena to the other, bucking and galloping at full speed all alone. Though I was ‘safe’ on the other side of the arena wall, it kinda scared me when he came flying toward me..barely stopping in time. My riding teacher saw him coming at me and yelled at me to move away,” she writes.
“I said ‘I’m fine! The gate is closed!’ to which she said, ‘Girl – when they wanna go they will go…there ain’t no point in even shuttin’ the gate.’ It really made a mark on me when she said that and I wrote it down. SPACE COWBOY came a couple days after with @shanemcanally + @lukerobert. Make peace with what doesn’t belong. You’ll find something better.”
Musgraves says many of the new songs on Golden Hour were inspired by the new love she found with singer-songwriter Ruston Kelly. The couple married in October of 2017.
Golden Hour is set for release on March 30. Musgraves is currently on the road with Little Big Town and Midland on the Breakers Tour, and she’ll join Harry Styles later in the year as part of his Live on Tour in June and July.
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This Article Was Originally Posted at www.TasteofCountry.com
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