Kacey Musgraves Drops Two Songs From New Tex Mex Tapes Album

Kacey Musgraves surprised fans this week by announcing a full companion album to "Middle of Nowhere," her 2026 country record. The new project, titled "Middle of Nowhere Vol. 2: Tex Mex Tapes," leans into the Tex-Mex and norteño traditions that have long shaped music along the Texas-Mexico border. Two songs from the album are available now: an original track called "Weekend in Texas" and a cover of the norteño classic "Mi Tesoro."

The announcement came with little advance notice, Pitchfork reported, which is unusual for a major album release. Rather than rolling out singles over weeks and building toward a reveal, Musgraves unveiled the project and its first two songs at the same time. The album arrives Jan. 15, 2027, through Lost Highway.

The two preview songs, explained

"Weekend in Texas" is built around ranchera-inspired cowbells and a pedal steel guitar, according to Rolling Stone. Ranchera is a traditional genre from Mexico known for expressive brass, guitar and vocal arrangements that carry strong emotional weight. On "Weekend in Texas," the cowbells give the song a lively, festive quality while the pedal steel keeps it rooted in country. Rolling Stone described the track as a fun song in which Musgraves bids farewell to an ego-driven ex and heads back home to Texas.

"Mi Tesoro" takes a quieter approach. Musgraves covers a norteño track originally recorded by Cornelio Reyna, whom Rolling Stone called "the godfather of norteño." Norteño is a musical style from northern Mexico built around the accordion, often paired with corrido story-songs and romantic ballads. It developed along the border and spread through communities on both sides of the Rio Grande. By choosing a Reyna song as one of the album's first two preview tracks, Musgraves signals that the project is treating these traditions as its core subject, not as decoration.

Inside the Kacey Musgraves Tex Mex Tapes album

The full release runs 16 tracks in total, with 11 original songs and five covers. One of those covers is a Spanish-language version of "Uncertain, TX," a song from the original "Middle of Nowhere" album. For that recording, Musgraves worked with Intocable, a Texan band with deep roots in regional Mexican music. Rolling Stone noted it was her first full song recorded in Spanish.

The project will also include two more Spanish-language original songs beyond the "Uncertain, TX" cover, Rolling Stone reported. Together with the covers and the norteño-inflected production on tracks like "Weekend in Texas," the album takes shape as a record that treats the hyphenated nature of Tex-Mex music seriously rather than using it as a surface-level flourish.

Thematically, Rolling Stone noted the album continues where "Middle of Nowhere" left off. Musgraves is working through what the outlet described as an in-between chapter of life, with themes of solitude and contentment running through the material. The companion album appears to be the same creative territory explored through a different musical lens, rather than a departure from the original record's mood.

Where "Middle of Nowhere" stands

"Middle of Nowhere" came out earlier in 2026. Its lead singles included "Dry Spell" and the title track. A music video for "Mexico Honey," a third song from the album, followed in the months after release. All of it fed into a North American tour that is now in its final days.

The U.S. portion of the tour runs 34 dates. It closes with two nights at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Oct. 26 and 27, according to Pitchfork. After those shows, the tour moves overseas. Rolling Stone reported that Musgraves will bring the trek to Australia and the United Kingdom in January, which overlaps with the release of "Tex Mex Tapes" and will give her a chance to introduce the new material on those stages.

Why this matters for country music

Country music has been in a long period of expansion. Genre lines that once felt fixed have blurred as artists drew from hip-hop, pop, folk and indie rock. What has moved more slowly is country's relationship with Spanish-language and regional Mexican traditions, even though Texas country and Tex-Mex music grew up side by side in the same communities and landscapes for generations.

Musgraves is one of the more prominent country artists to treat this blend as a sustained creative project rather than a one-off gesture. The choices on "Tex Mex Tapes" - a Cornelio Reyna cover, a collaboration with Intocable, multiple Spanish-language originals - suggest real engagement with the source material. That depth tends to read differently to audiences who already know these traditions well.

The involvement of Intocable is worth noting separately. The group has built a long career in regional Mexican music with a following well outside the English-language country world. A featured appearance on a Lost Highway release puts them in front of listeners who may not have encountered their work before. That kind of exposure can move in both directions, broadening the audience for both artists at once.

What to watch before the January release

With 16 tracks on the project and only two released so far, Musgraves has room to share more music before the album drops on Jan. 15, 2027. Additional singles will likely arrive in the months ahead, and each new track will fill in more of the album's full shape.

The January tour dates in Australia and the United Kingdom will also be a test of how international audiences receive this material. Tex-Mex is a distinctly regional American sound, and how it plays in markets where country music itself occupies a niche is an open question. Musgraves has a following overseas built on earlier work, but "Tex Mex Tapes" asks something different of that audience.

For now, "Weekend in Texas" and "Mi Tesoro" offer the clearest statement of the project's direction. One is an upbeat original blending country and Mexican folk instrumentation; the other is a careful cover reaching back to one of norteño's founding artists. Together they sketch the outlines of an album that means to take its title seriously.