Impera Ghouls as bugs 🪲

Swiss: Cicada

Cirrus: Spider

Mountain: Cricket

Cumulus: Moth

Sunshine: Bee

Aurora: Silverfish

Aether: Scarab beetle

Aeon: Mantis

Rain: Dragonfly

Dewdrop: Wasp

here is a collection of unorganized thoughts i had about the ian interview with anthony in relation to dnp’s working relationship

smosh talking about being best friends who ended up being business partners and then roommates and how bad it was and how they were passive aggressive with each other because they couldn’t fight bc they had to be best friends for youtube 

at first i immediately got sad hearing it but also i do think there’s a slight difference in how smosh interacted, especially them saying they never ever talked about feelings or emotions and their relationship was always surface level anyway

as opposed to dnp who’s dynamic/relationship is inherently more emotion based and vulnerable so talking about what’s upsetting them is going to come more naturally when it comes to the business side

but obviously that kind of relationship in any context is going to be INTENSE and hard to maintain when your lives are that intertwined

anthony talking about growing up individually and then feeling like they had to regress back into their 17 year old selves when they did hang out (“all we did when we hung out was play mario kart and talk about what we were doing”) 

also something that made me slightly sad for a second, especially remembering dan’s whole thing about phil pulling him back and the jokes about regressing bc he’s back on youtube blah blah blah it’s not refined or representative of his growth (which i hope he’s dealing with that whole mindset please dear god) 

but also dnp have grown individually and as a duo and i think they’ve given each other the space to do so while also having the front row seat to that growth that smosh didn’t? 

them saying the new content is NOT going to be nostalgia base and they’re not going to revert back to their old personas is actually really interesting and i wonder what that’s going to look like.

it makes me think about how dan and phil would approach consistent joint content again pcou, especially given the ~vibe~ of the last few videos together (mostly thinking about the 2022 texting video that felt...off a bit? which is so rare for dnp). it’s gotta be hard to not slip back into those old roles especially when being on camera together again is still novel 

ian and anthony talking about how the audience shaped their friendship in their peak and how they tried to play into the characters the fans made for them and it caused resentment/ anthony said being the ‘hot one’ and ian being the ‘funny one’ upset him a lot because it made him question his value. i find that whole section fascinating because i think that’s one thing dnp held onto? like they didn’t let the audience decide their dynamic or personalities 

but dnp also had the added element of more intimate outlets like liveshows where we got to see natural dynamics or even gaming channel stuff while smosh only really did scripted sketch stuff, so the audience got to see a more well rounded version of dnp and not just like....TATINOF stage personas

also and idk how to say this articulately....dnp also were actively hiding a part of themselves and working against audience perspective so they’re less susceptible to succumb to being their personas off camera with each other (especially going back to the first point of their relationship being more complex emotionally than the 2 cishet dudes who said they didn’t share feelings for the first 20 years of their friendship)

smosh talking about their work styles and creative processes and how they mesh well together which i would LOVE to hear more about that from dnp in how they come up with ideas or the details of their process together ESPECIALLY now 

tbh i was never a smosh fan for a variety of reasons and i’ve never been fond of anthony but i appreciate what smosh meant to a lot of people and how big of a win this is for youtube creators in general. it is interesting to hear them talk about this new era and how excited they are for the future of the channel 

maybe other people will have a chat about what a revamped version of a beloved channel that was also a fun project for them could look like, especially without the pressure of making money off of it

please dnp i will buy yet another fucking channel membership off you 

Zippity Zoomer: Mining the Minecraft Generation

One picture is usually all it  takes to transport the viewer, one picture can create many stories.

“Where Y’All Sitting” is an image meme template ripped from good ol’ Vectortoons, a ubiquitous nobody. This meme represents a leftover relic of the days of true Beliebers.  This particular variant of the meme offers up a collage of usernames turned public personas of Minecraft content creators, and is not in fact secret gibberish code that Gen-Z uses for telepathic communication. For the record, and for the sake of offering my own  POV, dear Reader  I’m a rapidly decaying millennial screeching into my late twenties. The following is an investigation into a NEW BREED(Z) of Celebrity, The Minecraft Streamer.

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Millennials are more obsessed with generational categories because we have never felt an ounce of control in our own destinies.” - Me, a too wordy Millennial 

My first impression when I started Googling these names one by one is that Google generously auto generates the word “merch” next to nearly every name on this list. In the Age of the Hustle, our children’s children are hawking off not just plain ol t-shirts; but also offer a wide array of: hoodies, cell phone cases, coffee mugs, pillows, stickers (oh god, the  endless flood of stickers), clocks, shower curtains, coasters, jigsaw puzzles, magnets, tapestries, bedding (no, bedframes?), hats, fannypacks, flags, stationary, facemasks, baby onesies, coins, drinkware, pet clothing, and fake presidential campaign merch are just a smattering of the wares hawked by the people listed in this picture. This list of Minecraft enthusiasts turned digital entrepreneurs are all mostly various stripes of the same  floppy haired young men variant. An unyielding crop of snarky cocky content creators. Most of them are banking off of the success of a digital experiment that asked, “What if Lego, but as a video game?” No! There’s more to Minecraft than that! So much more and a decrypted boomer like me could  never hope to decipher.

Buy my Merch because I’m born to be on Merch. 

The cockiness permeating from these content creators is understandable. Most of these current Professional Gamers were raised devoid of a functioning plausible civilization. These Gaming Content Creators can have faith in the digital system  because it is through the stage of Minecraft they are  accumulating millions of youtube and twitch subscribers. All of these content providers are part of millions of young people’s media diet, websites churn out articles tracking down their love lives. People want to know if badboyhalo is dating Skeppy ? People want to know if Addison Rae is joining a Minecraft based content farm collective Dream SMP? Why has Tommy Innit been banned from Tik Tok? Why did georgenotfound boycott Wendy’s? Were Minx and Wilbur Soot really dating?  Does technoblade have ADD? Okay, mainly the website Distractify is asking these questions  the Google algorithm certainly encourages them too). This onslaught of articles proves that not only are these largely Minecraft based Twitch streamers profitable from a merchandising stand point but they can also be mined for tabloid fodder.  

Wilbur Soot - who is not an Incel. He’s just cheeky. 

The connective tissue that brings all of these names together is not just Minecraft and Game streaming, but the common cause of a collective, the Dream SMP collective. Apparently, young people need a collective to believe in. I know I would be lost without an Animal Collective or an Odd Future to help illustrate what a collaborative effort should look like.  Young people gravitate towards collectives and communities at large, because it is no longer available in the real world (and this was the case well before Covid). Take another name from the meme lunch room, Wilbur Soot, who is not only another Twitch based video game streamer, but he is also a musician with equally viral music videos . Soot’s general sound/vibe could be described as if Los Campesinos were extremely online and played less instruments (and just generally were worse, okay maybe that’s a thin, mean comparison). His music is not offensive, one song in particular “E-girl” finds Soot’s flipping expectations and criticizes the Internet for aiding an unhealthy romantic  fixation. Surprisingly thoughtful material that is trying to articulate the raw feeling of people plugged in since birth. Seeing  as most of these Minecraft based guys are known for being on the mic for hours at a time it does make Soot’s four minute song feel way longer than it should be. Soot’s got an impressive music production style down that makes his schtick go down easier. My verdict, Wilbur Soot is certainly a step above Hobo Johnson.

One of these e-boys were reported on for  making an off colored jokes on a Jackbox stream, and is about a complete non-story as you would expect. I am sure most of the young men listed in this collage are walking Ninja/pewdiepie hate speech bombs waiting to happen, but I am sure that kind of controversy is saved for later down the road to get over that 10 million subscriber hump.For the most part, this is bunch of dorky tech savvy teenagers who indulge in wholesome trolling and have a fixation on serving the Sponsors.  

These Minecraft based content creators’ main business pitch is a Maximalist Parasocial Bonding that specifically taps into the fan’s Good Friends based cortex. In no way am I adverse to freebasing on parasocial adult (mostly male) friendships. Being a human being, especially young and naive, is a lonely and miserable experience. People need all the faint grasp of human  connection he/she/they can get. None of these kids invented this dehumanizing that rewards people who strip themselves down to the basic elementals, strip themselves down into a celebrity sized square.

A still from the upcoming DREAM SMP movie trailer that is currently nestled at 11,100,784 views

Writing this article has been a personal exercise in fighting against validating every one of my knee-jerk reactions against these Simple Minecraft Dreamers. I saw a sea of probable goons rolling around in their sponsored donated money pits where donors’ flex control over the content provider. Give badboy Skeppy 10,000 big ones and he’ll shave his head for you and put on a show. Digging deeper, and I assure you what is lurking behind every seemingly bizarre and incomprehensible faction on the Internet is a longing for community. An all too real human ache and urge to spin stories and craft personal mythos. Minecraft is not the Marvel Industrial Complex but the Dreamers, muffins and potatoes could change all of that. I keep thinking that Minecraft is just a video game version of Legos and that it will one day fade away, but I am dead wrong. It is I that will be doing the fading away. The stories and servers of Minecraft myth makers will outlive me. My body will decompose but a Minecraft streamer’s plastic phone case will endure.

Critical Analysis: Is AKA Resolving an Identity Crisis in Touch My Blood?

A conversation with writer, Tseliso Monaheng, and hip-hop activist and photographer, Rushay Booysen, about AKA finally reaching out to the coloured community in his latest and last album, Touch My Blood.

If this is really Kiernan Forbes’s last album, the South African hip-hop industry has lost a gem. Forbes is a force to be reckoned with. Politics and Beyonce aside, Forbes is genuinely a hard working individual, and Touch My Blood (TMB) could easily be one of the best albums in South African Hip Hop today. The album is a medley of fresh tracks and tracks released since his last offering. The first time I listened to the album I had some political bias but a conversation with Tseliso Monaheng quickly changed that, and I had to go back for a second listen. At first, my review was very much based on womanism and my perceptions of what hip-hop culture is meant to represent. Of course, this is based on the Beyonce track.

Not to take anything away from his last two albums, TMB is easily Forbes’s best work thus far.  Forbes is committed to his rhymes. Each song is well crafted, and when Forbes commits his soul to a beat he sees it through. I wonder if I’d be reaching if I dubbed him a young ODB – the wit, the raw charm and the skill. Jealous down, “AKA is one of the fewest artists who have made multiple hits across the continent, Fela in Versace is the next hit… He has collaborated with Africa’s finest artists… ” to paraphrase Monaheng. Fela in Versace has all the elements of hit we’ll probably be jamming to in December and features Kiddominant. Next year Forbes is likely to collect an award for that song, on an international stage. Speaking of awards Forbes takes a jab at the SAHHAs stating that he’s the one that put one of Osmic Menoe’s project on the map in Me and You. Forbes is the face of leading brands we grew up wearing, and booze we mostly drink on special occasions. To me, Me and You, is a toe-to-toe jam where rappers do what they do best, FLEX. Apart from flexin’, it’s no lie Forbes is a man with clout. In Star Signs, featuring Stogie T, Supamega GOES IN! Star Signs is a signature track, and it’s a bop for any hip-hop head. Right off the jump, Forbes points out not fucking with “backpack to the city and rap activities.” Supamega has come a long way since his breakthrough in the industry, “In this album, AKA actively reaches out to coloured community.” Monaheng mentioned when I was listing complaints about Forbes. “Why is no one talking about that?”

I know absolutely nothing about being coloured, therefore I cannot speak nor reference the culture with confidence. The song Mame is clearly paying homage to his roots and he interrogates current affairs; he is not shy about ambiguous space coloureds occupy in the ideal of the rainbow nation, the fact there was no real conversation around this new freedom and being granted access to resources. Of course, Forbes is about the money – “Even Madiba pulled up in a Benz…” and later concludes, “Fuck you, pay me.” Mame is easily one of the best songs on the album; the song is reminiscent of KO’s Pretty Young Thing. Monaheng pointed out that In Touch My Blood, Forbes fortifies his position as MVP in South African hip hip, never forsaking his coloured roots and occasionally sending shout-outs to Brasse vannie Kaap throughout the album.

At the foundation of South African hip-hop is the coloured community; I chatted to Rushay Booysen about the role of the coloured community in hip-hop and on how Forbes has positioned himself, “A couple of months ago, I wrote a post on Facebook about how AKA doesn’t reference coloured culture and his music never referenced his community. This can be viewed as a class issue because of the coloured community historical elements influence the classism. I felt he intentionally disassociated from being coloured in order to resonate with all races. As opposed to YoungstaCPT, who directly references coloured culture. However, over the past few months, he has tried to reconcile his place within the coloured community. On his interview with Sway, that was the first time I heard him reference coloured culture.”  

In TMB, Forbes uses a lot more coloured slang and references communities such as Eldorado Park, Rushay points out. “There are certainly clear attempts at reconciling with his community. AKA is a product of the rainbow nation ideology, he does not really subscribe to the notion of race, coloured identity in particular. When you come from a Model C background, you tend to take on different personas and speak a certain way and adopt a culture different from your community so I think that’s what occurred with AKA. His biggest market is black and perhaps, he tries to resonate with them but he has confessed to feeling unaccepted by black people. AKA’s biggest struggle has probably been finding his place within a certain community. Reaching out to the coloured community is claiming his place.”

The opening track being the title track is brave. Most artists typically lower the title track to somewhere in the middle or at the end of the album, but Forbes is not here to fuck around with your little peanuts. In Fully In he asks: “What’s a Rand to a Dollar? …Is you gon’ dala what you halla?” and later states that “numbers don’t lie.” According to Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA), the album sold over 20 000 copies within a week. Elated, he shared this beautiful piece of news on Twitter, and his statement about being able to succeed without being signed touched Shane Eagle. Mbali Ndlela summed the beef up in one of her Twitter threads, and this has left us wondering whether Forbes will return to the studio to put Eagle in his place.

If we can learn anything from Cardi B and Nicki Minaj’s altercation over Minaj’s Motorsport verse it’s that there is a hierarchy in hip-hop. You don’t go around picking fights with emcees who have spent years building their brands, dealing with record labels, taking time to understand the business and observe the politics of it all. In the Tweets, Forbes’ reinforces his perception that Eagle is a kid, and as we all know, in the hierarchy kids don’t eat with the grown folks.

“It’s a shame that no women feature in the album,” I said to Monaheng.

“Probably because there are no female artists he resonates with? Can we separate the art from the politics?” Monaheng tells me.

Tough one. For me at, at least – does his daughter count as a female feature? Speaking of separating the art from the person, in Reset Forbes features JR and Okmalumkoolkat (not Smiso Zwane, okay?). This is one of those 21 Questions types of jams. I guess a man of Forbes’ stature stays questioning the women in his life, and women he dates. Almost every rapper has a love jam of this nature and I wonder what kind of response can be expected to the questions posed in the song. In the fragile economy of retweets finding talent to feature for an artwork like TMB must be an exhausting task. The list of rappers is endless. All the features are stellar. L-Tido is clearly a fantastic choice for Amen and he clearly commits to the flow, sampling a classic house track. Sampling in South African music has escalated to plagiarism, but the sampling in this track is smooth and simple, yet possesses a mysterious vibe that reminds us why we are so in love with Supamega. Kwesta really came through on Magriza. This is the jam you play when you roll up in the hood in your fresh ride to pick up your grandmother and take her to church. Gangsta.

His production team, boasts another stellar crew featuring himself, Master A Flat, Tweezy, Tazzy, Kiddominant, Anatii, Gemini Major, DJ Maphorisa, Makwa and Julian. The lack of women on his production team – features aside – is probably the reason why he released Beyonce. The track is a tantrum and Bonang is on the receiving end of it. The song is a farce, it’s emotional abuse forever imprinted in music and I wonder what this means for the child he is raising? Forbes is setting a precedent in Beyonce, that it’s okay to ill-treat women and emotionally abuse them – artistically. When he brags about kicking her out of a hotel room, this sends chills of domestic violence down my spine. I tend to become emotional around hip-hop because, in my life, it has served as a form of enlightenment so I tend to feel like rappers should actually analyse their role in patriarchy and domination of women.

“What does all of that have to do with hip-hop?” Monaheng questions as we iron out how I can go about this essay. “Hip-hop is party music,” he says referring to the early days when people jammed to broken beats, that amazing boom bop era. Forbes is an artist, he’s holding a mirror up to society – I get that. However, no possible explanation can make me hate Beyonce any less. Women actually love Forbes, know his lyrics and go to his shows; that’s why I feel that South African hip-hop is yet to truly understand the importance of femininity in hip-hop. Of course, hip-hop is rooted in battle culture, I mean his tiff with Refilwe Phoolo is almost at the level of Jay-Z and Nas, and I really don’t want to talk about who’s who in the sitch. Battle songs, beef with other rappers and dissing forms part of the foundation of making a rap song cool. Ask Masta Ace all about it. However…

“Hip-hop is imperfect,” Rushay says, “the younger generation is doing things a lot more different than the old school. When we were coming up things were a lot different and that’s why there is a lot of conflicts.”

For the longest time, my younger brother urged me to listen to Forbes’ music – I have been exposed to his work by force and his growth with each album intensifies. It will be interesting to see him really conduct the business of hip-hop beyond the limelight. An early retirement at the age of 30 is significant and it indicates a level of success most coloured and black men only dream about.

Saturday, March 25th, 2017 - A Near Flawless Kacey Musgraves Concludes a Memorable 21st Annual Toyota Texas Music Revolution

For its twenty-first year, the forces behind the Toyota Texas Music Revolution went bigger than ever before, even trumping last year’s impressive lineup, all the while keeping things (mostly) regional and local. To headline the main night of the two-day festival they had tapped Kacey Musgraves. And while she may have scored a couple prestigious awards over the last few years and has become one of the most notable acts currently in country music, most Texans still view her as a homegrown talent that managed to find her way out of Mineola and onto the world’s stage. That was sure how things were perceived this day as what looked to be a thousand or so people ultimately made their way into Oak Point Park in Plano, Texas, some camping out in front of the main stage in the field, while most made the trek back and forth between it and the amphitheater stage, making certain they got the most out of their festival experience. By the time night rolled around everyone was ready to see Musgraves take the stage, that excitement and anticipation trumping the chill in the air that had set in once the sun went down. Coupled with a significant breeze it was downright cold out there, though that wasn’t going to stop anyone from watching at least a portion of  Musgraves’ set, the songstress and her band finally hitting the stage at 9:40. They kicked things off with something from the acclaimed Same Trailer, Different Park, "Stupid” seeming somewhat ironic now considering Musgraves’ recent engagement. However, the song about how futile love can seem will always be relevant to someone, and it was oh so catchy, its numerous hooks ensuring it was a spellbinding opener that had everyone captivated.

“One, two, three, four,” the singer counted, barely allowing enough time for applause before they launched into “Biscuits”. That lead single from 2015′s Pageant Material earned some rave applause from the spectators, its cheery demeanor helping to cultivate some joyous vibes. “...The holiest of holies even slip from time to time. We've all got dirty laundry hanging on the line,” sang Musgraves, taking advantage of the brief break before the second chorus to add, "Except anyone from Texas,” smiling at the onlookers as she said it. “How y'all doing?! Are y'all turnt up?!” she asked afterwards, conversing with everyone a little while stating how good it felt to be back in her home state, especially since the blue bonnets were blooming. “How many of you are from small towns?” she then asked, several people shouting or applauding to indicate they were. They bonded over the shared experience of growing up with “shit to do” as Musgraves put it, noting what a big deal it was when her hometown finally voted to allow the sale of alcohol just a few years ago. Laughable to some, "This Town" isn’t nearly as tongue-in-cheek as some may believe it to be, and actually, depicts the close-knit small town mentality extremely well. Upon finishing that one Musgraves mentioned her grandparents were in attendance. (”My grandpa’s gonna get lit!” she quipped.) That acted as a nice segue into their next number, one about the relatives you may not always want to claim, but their family nonetheless, "Family is Family” being another engaging song in what everyone viewed as a string of hits thus far. "It Is What It Is" slowed things down a bit, the pedal steel being highlighted more prominently, while the cello gave it a sense of refined elegance and made it sound even more striking. From the final song on her major label debut they then went to the lead cut, “Silver Lining". It felt like an apt follow up, as if it was a continuation of the story in a way, still having a bit of a melancholy feel, though slightly more upbeat than the previous one. That brought them to a cover, and an unexpected one at that, the cello launching them in to a countrified rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy”. It’s a song that any routine listener has probably forgotten about, while others in this predominantly older crowd almost certainly had never heard the song before; Musgraves keeping it fairly true to form while also injecting her own flare into it. The tune’s catchy aspect made it fit right in line with her music. Nathaniel Smith earned some well-deserved fanfare for his impeccable work on the cello; "Good Ol' Boys Club” getting them back to the pure country music spirit. “Damn! It's a little cold out here for Texas!” Musgraves commented, the weather seeming to have chipped away at her enough that she was feeling it. Cold, but still normal for an unpredictable Texas climate; and a brief remark about it was the extent of how much it seemed to bother her. One of the few love songs in her arsenal, "Late To The Party” was dedicated to all the lovers that were watching, and apparently, more may be on the way. Musgraves treated everyone to a new song she has cooked up, and while acknowledging that she was uncertain how her fan base would react to it, she prepared them to expect more love songs down the line. ″...I’ve never had that before,” she remarked, seeming bewildered by the fact that it was happening, but again, given recent events in her personal life, it makes sense that something a little more sentimental and perhaps even sappy would come from it. "Butterfly" was the name of the new tune they dished out, essentially being about a person who was fine making their own way through life, at least until they unexpectedly crossed paths with someone that made them think they didn’t have to be alone. Most everyone seemed to like it, and it was a good song. Fairly relaxed (in a vein similar to the previous song they had played), and while unquestionably a love song, it was far from sappy. More sweet with a deep personal sentiment behind it, and that was what made it so powerful. If anyone was desperate for something they were familiar with than "Follow Your Arrow” was sure to do the trick, the kick drum bridging them right into it, while Musgraves encouraged everyone to sing along on it. Sparse at first, she did turn one of the final choruses over to the fans, and while they needed some assistance from her here and there, their collective voice was also quite audible as they sang, “So make lots of noise, kiss lots of boys, or kiss lots of girls, If that's what you're into...”. “Miserable” perfectly showcased what a ravishing voice Musgraves has, her set of pipes sounding gorgeous as she nailed every note; while an odd little song about plastic proceeded it. She admitted as much, though said she quite enjoyed the song, apparently enough to do a cover of it, and it was rather thought provoking in a way, part of it focusing on the kids in China who make plastic toys for kids in America and elsewhere to play with. Afterwards, she briefly took to the wings of the stage, allowing her band to take charge as they served up a quick jam. The guitarist truly got to shine during what essentially acted as an intro to the rich and smooth "High Time”. With just a few songs left in this 73-minute long set, she and her band treated everyone to a song she helped write that Miranda Lambert made into a hit, "Mama's Broken Heart”. Those who hadn’t let the continuously dropping temperatures get to them seemed to be recharged by the splendid rendition; and while her band left once it was in the bag, it was only going to get better from there. Musgraves shared a little backstory to the following song, saying it was inspired by her “little town”, but after achieving the success she did and getting to travel more she realized it was about every town. It might have been nice to have heard "Merry Go 'Round” done in the fashion of the recording, however, being stripped down like it was gave it more of an honest feel that caused one to really reflect on what she was singing. At least a portion of that song is applicable to everyone, the words stinging as she crooned out the hit. As her band mates returned to the stage, she expressed her gratitude to everyone for braving the weather with them. “Y’all have been such bad assess...” she declared in advance of wrapping things up with a fiery rendition of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'” that acted as a sort of homage to some of the country greats while also seeming to represent the persona Musgraves had exuded this night. Confident and assured of herself, she was there to make sure everyone was entertained while also serving as a purveyor of true country music. The gradual trickle of fans heading out the gate turned into a mass exodus as the hundreds of people that had stuck around headed for their cars, a little tired after a long day out in the elements, but feeling extremely satisfied after having seen a ton of excellent talent from all around the Lone Star State and beyond. Musgraves had capped the 21st annual TTMR off perfectly, fitting the mold the event has cast for itself and appeasing the musical palates’ of everyone who attended this year. The station and this festival are all about playing and promoting authentic country/Americana music, and while there may not be much of that when it comes to artists that have made it to Nashville, Musgraves is one who has stayed true to her roots. The weather did seem to play a part in keeping the audience slightly disconnected from her set, ‘cause while she tried to reel everyone in, some were content with being mere spectators instead of immersing themselves into the experience and genuinely getting caught up in the moment. Regardless of what it was, that can’t be blamed on Musgraves as she gave this show her all, sounding pristine and in near flawless form for the duration of her set. The chemistry she and her band have was something special, leading to a captivating performance to watch, while vocally she sounded more impressive than even her two albums lead one to believe. Twangy and distinct, it’s something to marvel at; and having never gotten the opportunity to see her prior to this night, I must say, she surpassed my expectations. Worthy of all the accolades she’s received so far, it’s safe to assume Musgraves will only continue her ascent in the country music world until she stands as one of its queens. She has a few shows scheduled up through the summer, including a two-night stand at White Water Amphitheater inNew Braunfels, TX on April 21st and 22nd supporting Willie Nelson. On June 4th she’ll be in Morrison, CO at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and in August she’ll be making a couple of appearances at some festivals in Canada. More details and her complete calendar of events can be found HERE; and check out her records in iTUNES or GOOGLE PLAY.