Ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get the perfect shot. Kacey Musgraves announced her sixth studio album Middle of Nowhere this week, which was produced by Kacey alongside longtime collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. Kacey is a proud Texas girl, and so the album draws on plenty of inspiration from her home state, and considering there’s a sign in her tiny, unincorporated, no-stoplight hometown of Golden, Texas, with a population of under 300 that reads “Golden, TX: Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere,” that sparked the idea for the title track and much of the theme for the entire album. It also inspired many of the visual elements we’ve already seen from the album, including the album cover, which shows Kacey standing on a sidewalk looking off to the side with a Texas longhorn to her right. And during an interview with NPR Music’s Jewly Hight, ahead of a listening event for the new album, she noted there were rodeo barrels and a longhorn bull on the premises, and Kacey says she wanted to spotlight those very unique Texas elements. She also revealed how they shot the cover, as Kacey’s sister took the photos in Dallas one day and the bull is totally real. She had her friend Evan bring one from his ranch, and Kacey explained that they rode around Dallas one day, and would block traffic to take pictures and eventually ended up with the album cover you see here: View this post on Instagram Kacey said they didn’t have any sort of permits, but they ended up with the perfect shot: “It’s those pieces of Texas and country life that often get overlooked. It’s not trying to convince anyone that it is overly country or western, because that’s what can make something feel cliche. It’s just about finding those little elements that are so mundane that they’re so overlooked sometimes. The album cover, my sister took those photos in Dallas one day, and haters are gonna say that that bull is AI, but it is definitely not. We had my friend Evan bring a bull from his ranch, and we just rode around Dallas and would quickly get out and try to block traffic with some cones. We had no permits or anything.” I mean, what a production… I can’t imagine driving up on that scene, but she did get a really cool album cover out of it so I’d say it was well-worth whatever stress likely went into getting all this together and actually capturing the photos. Kacey says she was also inspired by the diversity and variety of people she found cutting a rug on the dance floor in an Austin dive bar dance hall, leading her to incorporate some of those rhythms into the record too. She noted that “America needs to two-step together” and “be on the dance floor,” and I couldn’t agree more: “During this time period, I wound up in Austin one night and I went out to a super divey dance hall and there was a live country band playing. It was really nice to see so many different kinds of people having the best time decked out in their western wear. It was hot Latino couples, it was hot Black cowboys, it was older white cowboys dancing with younger cowgirls, and everybody was having such a good time dancing with each other. I was like, ‘Damn, America needs to two-step together. America needs to be on the dance floor.’ It’s really a great equalizer, and it’s where your differences sort of melt away, and the one goal is to connect via music and have fun and move your body. It made me really inspired to infuse some of that Texas dance hall feeling and rhythms into the record.” Middle of Nowhere is due out everywhere on May 1st, and Kacey will also feature several duets on the record including collaborations with icon Willie Nelson, bluegrass phenom Billy Strings, and South African musician Gregory Alan Isakov, and yes, that long-awaited, seemingly improbable duet with Miranda Lambert is coming on a song called “Horses and Divorces.” The lead single, “Dry Spell,” is not subtle but really funny in case you haven’t heard it yet: “Dry Spell” Middle of Nowhere Tracklist: 1.Middle of Nowhere 2.Dry Spell 3.Back on the Wagon 4.I Believe in Ghosts 5.Abilene 6.Coyote feat. Gregory Alan Isakov 7.Loneliest Girl 8.Everybody Wants To Be a Cowboy feat. Billy Strings 9.Horses and Divorces feat. Miranda Lambert 10.Uncertain, Texas feat. Willie Nelson 11.Rhinestoned 12.Mexico Honey 13.Hell on MeThe post “Haters Are Gonna Say That Bull Is AI” – Kacey Musgraves Stopped Traffic In Dallas (Without Permits) To Shoot Album Cover With Real Bull first appeared on Whiskey Riff.