Watch Kacey Musgraves Go on a 'Kaleidoscopic Trip' Through the Circle of Life in 'Cardinal' Music Video
The Grammy-winning star has released a new music video for "Cardinal," off her latest album 'Deeper Well'
Kacey Musgraves is soaring to new heights (literally!) in the new, psychedelic-inspired music video for her song “Cardinal.”
Musgraves, 35, has said that the song, the lead track off her most recent album Deeper Well, is inspired by the loss of her friend and mentor John Prine. And in a new music video released Monday, July 15, the star takes an “abstract and kaleidoscopic trip through birth, rebirth, nature, memory, dream, and the fragmented pieces of ourselves that eventually transform into different energy when we leave this world behind,” according to a press release.
In the video, which was directed by Scott Cudmore, Musgraves is seen gazing serenely out windows from various rooms in a house, until eventually she takes on a new, all-black look as the aesthetic changes from country chic to trippy kaleidoscopes that echo the song’s ‘70s-inspired sound.
Eventually Musgraves levitates off the ground, as footage of blooming flowers, rotting apples and a flying cardinal demonstrate the circle of life.
Kacey Musgraves/Youtube
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The “Too Good to Be True” singer previously revealed in a zine that “Cardinal” was inspired by Prine’s 2020 death, writing, “When cardinals appear, angels are near.”
"Unexplainable things started happening and cardinals started showing up on my doorstep soon after my good friend and mentor passed, John Prine," she wrote in the zine, which is available for purchase with Deeper Well. "He always had a big connection to cardinals and felt that they were messengers from the spirit realm. He inspired this song, no doubt."
Prine died of COVID complications at age 73 in 2020. Musgraves was a longtime fan of the country legend, and the two became close friends and collaborators when she rose to fame in Nashville. In 2015, she joined the star aboard his Cayamo: A Journey Through Song cruise, on which they sang his hits “Illegal Smile” and “Paradise.” In 2017, they sang his classic “Angel from Montgomery” together at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Steven Simione/FilmMagic, Gie Knaeps/Getty
Kacey Musgraves in 2022; John Prine in 1996“John Prine singlehandedly impacted my songwriting more than anyone else. He’s the king of turning phrase but keeping it simple,” Musgraves told PEOPLE in an exclusive statement following his death. “They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but you’ll never meet someone as truly genuine as he was.”
Musgraves released Deeper Well, her sixth studio album, in March, and it marked her fifth No. 1 debut atop the country charts.
She recently completed the first leg of her Deeper Well World Tour in Europe, and will bring the show to North America starting in early September.
The Grammy winner will play nearly 40 dates before wrapping in Nashville on Dec. 7.
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