Kacey Musgraves is coming full circle with her new label deal, signing to the recently relaunched, Nashville-based Lost Highway Records. The eight-time Grammy winner was the final artist signed to the label in 2011. In 2012, Lost Highway was absorbed by Mercury Nashville as Musgraves was crafting her debut studio album Same Trailer, Different Park (which contained her breakthrough hit “Merry Go ‘Round”).
Now, she is the first artist signed to the revitalized label.
Lost Highway’s revival was announced earlier this month, with former Thirty Tigers executive Robert Knotts and Universal Music Group Nashville (UMGN) executive Jake Gear serving as co-heads and executive vps of the resurrected label.
“Lost Highway was always a musical stable for artists who might be considered outliers or outlaws; those who live on the fringe,” Musgraves said in a statement. “In 2011, when other record labels questioned my songwriting and my more traditional country sound, Lost Highway believed in me, signing me to my first label deal and helped me take my music around the world. That journey has now come full circle in such a special way with John Janick and Interscope and I’m deeply honored to be able to once again call Lost Highway my musical home.”
Musgraves is celebrating the label deal with Lost Highway Records by releasing her interpretation of the label’s namesake song, the Leon Payne-written “Lost Highway,” which Hank Williams covered in 1949.
John Janick, chairman/CEO, Interscope Capitol and IGA, said in a statement, “Kacey exemplifies the kind of culture- shifting, left-of-center artists that Lost Highway has always been known for. Given the close relationship she’s had with both Lost Highway and Interscope, it seemed only natural for her to be the first artist signed in this new chapter.”
Music exec Luke Lewis, who founded Lost Highway in 2000 and signed Musgraves in 2011, said in a statement: “For 20 years, my job was to run Mercury and MCA labels, which were primarily mainstream country endeavors. The last 10 years of my time there were passionately dedicated to starting and leading Lost Highway, which was the most rewarding time of my entire career. The label went on to cultivate some of the greatest singer/songwriters I have had the honor to work with, and I am extremely proud to have helped them further their amazing musical journeys. I am beyond grateful that this very special label is now in the hands of John Janick, Robert Knotts, Jake Gear and the Interscope team, and I am certain Lost Highway will have an incredible second inning.”
