Four years after John Prine’s death due to Covid-related complications, Kacey Musgraves’ “Cardinal,” pays homage to the fallen musician with a conceptual video release months after it appeared on her Deeper Well album.
Stripping down Musgraves’ sound to a bare minimum, “Cardinal” is a lush, gentle single complete with layered, spiraling harmonies in its chorus that offsets the sadness of its lyrics and speaks to Prine’s admiration of birds “I saw a sign / Or an omen / On the branches / In the mornin’ / It was right after I lost a friend / Without warning.”
In the years prior to his passing Musgraves and Prine became friendly with Kacey joining John onstage on at least two occasions
Described by her team as “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,” the video adds a layer of numbed-out solemnity to the tribute placing Musgraves alone in different rooms in a house, shut out from from the world and in mourning, with occasional cardinal-red splashes appearing in drapes and a painting of the bird. A hint of Mother Earth emerges at the end, complete with a levitation scene that’s one of the most evocative in a music video in recent memory.
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Author: Al Denté