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Left: Kacey Musgraves performs at Irving Plaza in New York City, February 2013.
At 24, Musgraves is suddenly one of music's most talked-about young artists. In April 2013 the Texan's first major-label album, "Same Trailer Different Park," debuted at #1 on the Billboard country chart, and #2 on the pop chart (just behind Justin Timberlake).
By CBSNews.com senior editor David Morgan
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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Kacey Musgraves began playing music at age 8, was writing songs at age nine, and took weekly guitar lessons beginning at age 12. She performed at the Select Theater in nearby Mineola, Texas.
Credit: Photo courtesy Kacey Musgraves
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Young Kacey Musgraves, who began writing songs at age nine.
"My songs started out as poems," she told CBS News' Anthony Mason. "And then I kind of figured out how to sort of fashion music to them." Her first song was titled "Notice Me."
The Texas native grew up with another country star, Miranda Lambert, and co-wrote the song "Mama's Broken Heart," which Lambert recorded for the 2011 album, "Four the Record."
Credit: Photo courtesy Kacey Musgraves
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In 2002, at age 13, Kacey released her first independent album, "Movin' On." It was followed in 2003 by "One Good Cowboy," and in 2007 by the eponymous "Kacey Musgraves."
Credit: CBS News
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Kacey Musgraves, a contestant on the USA Network's "Nashville Star," performs during the show's Premiere Party on January 11, 2007 in Nashville, Tenn.
Credit: Rusty Russell/Getty Images
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Contestants on "Nashville Star" perform during the show's Premiere Party on January 11, 2007 in Nashville, Tenn. On stage are (from left) Kacey Musgraves, Whitney Duncan, Angela Hacker, Meg Allison, Rickiejoleen, Zac Hacker, Josua Stevens, and Dustin Wilkes.
Credit: Rusty Russell/Getty Images
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Kacey Musgraves attends 2012 CMT Artists Of The Year at The Factory at Franklin on December 3, 2012 in Franklin, Tenn.
Credit: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CMT
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Kacey Musgraves attends the 2012 CMT "Artists Of The Year" Award at The Factory At Franklin, December 3, 2012 in Franklin, Tenn.
Credit: Erika Goldring/Getty Images
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Country music artist Kacey Musgraves performs at the American Music Theatre on Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Lancaster, Pa.
Credit: Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP
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Country artist Kacey Musgraves is pictured with her guitar teacher John DeFoore, with whom she studied from ages 12 through 17.
DeFoore told Anthony Mason that Musgraves' success doesn't surprise him. "The fame does only because that's so, I mean, there's a million killer writers out there that don't get it, ya know? But she had the voice, the look, her personality, and the persistence. A lot of people give up."
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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Among the country legends with whom Kacey Musgraves has played is Willie Nelson.
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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Singer Kacey Musgraves harmonizes with Dierks Bentley.
Credit: Facebook/Kacey Musgraves
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Kacey Musgraves with Loretta Lynn.
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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The lyrics of Musgraves' song "Merry Go 'Round," which describes the often suffocating life of a small town, were on the edge for notoriously conservative country radio:
If you ain't got two kids by 21,
You're probably gonna die alone.
Least that's what tradition told you.
And it don't matter if you don't believe,
Come Sunday morning, you best be there
in the front row like you're supposed to. ...
Jack and Jill went up a hill,
And Jack burned out on booze and pills,
And Mary had a little lamb,
Mary just don't give a damn no more.
Musgraves told Mason that she's never tried to provoke radio: "But I guess I didn't mind if I did."
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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In its review
Rolling Stone magazine said the 2013 album "Same Trailer Different Park" "proves Musgraves is for real. . . .
"Man, can Musgraves write. The album showcases a songwriting voice you won't hear anywhere else in pop: young, female, downwardly mobile, fiercely witty."
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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This Feb. 20, 2013 photo shows Kacey Musgraves at the Barista Parlor in Nashville, Tenn. Musgraves' latest CD, "Same Trailer Different Park," was released on March 19, 2013.
Credit: Donn JonesInvision/AP
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Country singer Kacey Musgraves with her dog, Pearl.
Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
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In March 2013 Kacey made her debut at the cathedral of country music: Nashville's Grand Ole Opry.
When asked if she thought country music was changing, or if she wanted it to change, Kacey told Mason, "I want it to change. I think there's a younger mindset coming in.
"I do think people like Taylor Swift have opened our genre up to people who wouldn't necessarily ever listen to country," said Musgraves. "And it's made it in a sense more cool. So I do think there's an influx of a little bit of change. But I want there to be more."
What kind of change? "Just a widened acceptance of subject matter, I don't know -- the realization that you don't have to sing about trucks and tailgates to be a country artist," she said.
Credit: Chris Hollo/Hollo Photographic, courtesy Kacey Musgraves
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Credit: Photo courtesy Kelly Christine Musgraves
