This is a complicated background to a mishearing posting that has itself turned out to be more complex than I first imagined — a mishearing of the title word in the song “Cardinal” as recorded in 2024 by Kacey Musgraves. This posting is about the song; the titular bird, the northern cardinal; KM the singer-songwriter; KM’s wonderful performance of the song; and the song’s moving background story, inspired by the late country / folk singer John Prine.
The song. “Cardinal” is from KM’s 2024 album Deeper Well.
[Digression on the album. You can see KM’s performance of the title song “Deeper Well” here (“… to take care of myself … I found a deeper well”); deep well has a literal sense (‘well that is deep (undergound)’ ) that has a technical use (‘a well in which the water level is at a depth exceeding 22 feet beyond which the ordinary suction pump does not operate satisfactorily’ (Merriam-Webster online)), but in KM’s song it’s used metaphorically, for ‘a large but hidden source of (personal) resources’ (information, memories, advice, emotional values, etc.)’ (my wording).
Deeper Well has been described as a country folk, soft rock, and folk-pop album. People have a lot of trouble fitting KM into current genre categories.]
As for “Cardinal”, the beginning of the song and its chorus:
[birds chirping]
[intro lyrics:]
I saw the sign or an omen
On the branches in the mornin’
It was right after I
Lost a friend without warnin’Words unsaid
Scarlet-red[chorus:]
Cardinal
Are you bringin’ me a message from the other side?
Cardinal
Are you tellin’ me I’m on somebody’s mind?
Don’t leave me behind(#1) From the text of the song
You can watch KM’s performance of the whole song here.
The titular bird.
(#2) A male northern cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis (we know it’s male because it’s scarlet-red (see the text); females are more muted in color)
There is an American folk belief that a visit from a cardinal represents a message from a friend who has died. Again, see the text.
KM the singer-songwriter. From Wikipedia:
Kacey Lee Musgraves (born August 21, 1988 [in Texas]) is an American singer-songwriter and musician [in the genres country, pop, and folk]. She began her career in the early 2000s, when she self-released three solo albums and recorded another album as a member of the duo Texas Two Bits.
… Her sixth studio album, Deeper Well (2024), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, and the album’s single “The Architect” won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.
The song’s background story. From People magazine, “How Kacey Musgraves’ Late Mentor John Prine Inspired Her Witchy New Song ‘Cardinal’; the country star’s new song “Cardinal” — inspired by her late friend Prine, who died in 2020 — appears on Musgraves’ new album ‘Deeper Well,’ out now” by Jeff Nelson on 3/15/24:
In the zine available for purchase with her new record Deeper Well, out now, Musgraves reveals that album opener “Cardinal” was inspired by the country icon, who died in April 2020 of complications from Covid-19, writing: “When cardinals appear, angels are near.”
The wryly comical Prine was both a country and a folk icon, and enormously influential on American pop culture. Rolling Stone magazine assembled a treasury: “John Prine: 25 Essential Songs”, from 4/7/20: with descriptions of each song, plus audios for all of them.
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