Just months after finishing her global Deeper Well tour, Kacey Musgraves is preparing to debut her sixth album, Middle of Nowhere, on May 1.

The upcoming album appears set to lean more heavily into Texas-country influences than some of her previous releases, judging by its imagery and descriptive cues.

Musgraves has dropped a preview of her upcoming album with a first single, Dry Spell, featuring a music video, which was released on Wednesday, March 11, with the album announcement.

The witty and saucy music video is co-directed by Hannah Lux Davis with Musgraves. 

The eight-time Grammy winner has been teasing the 13-track collection across social media and highway billboards, including posts where she and Lambert joked about previously trash-talking each other.

The exchange fuelled speculation of a feud or a possible collaboration. The latter proved true, with the pair joining forces on a track titled Horses & Divorces.

Besides Lambert, the project also brings in guest appearances from Willie Nelson, Billy Strings, and Gregory Alan Isakov.

“The bulk of this record was made during the longest single period of my life,” said Musgraves in a statement, “And I found that for the first time, it actually felt incredible being alone, and existing in a space not defined by anyone else.”

She added that she had become fascinated with the idea of “liminal space,” both geographically and emotionally, explaining that people often move too quickly through such transitional, undefined moments instead of lingering in them.

“I became so at ease with being in the ‘middle of nowhere’ in many senses, and sitting in the un-comfort of the undefined,” Musgraves said.

During that period, she noted, she had ample time for creative wandering and reconnecting with herself, through horses, humour, and writing again with some of her early collaborators.

Musgraves also shared that she spent that stretch living a “very simple, inspired life” split between Texas, Tennessee, and Mexico.