Are You Sure

Album: Pageant Material (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This hidden track, which appears at the end of Pageant Material, was originally recorded by Willie Nelson in the 1960s. Nelson sings on Musgraves' version as well as playing his iconic guitar, Trigger. "I really am a big fan of nostalgic hidden tracks," Musgraves told Spin. "It was something I was a big fan of growing up."

    "So I thought, Willie Nelson is an artist that's an album artist," she continued. "He's not a single artist. I don't consider myself like that either so I thought this was a really nice, special moment and a treat for the people who make it to the very end of the record. Like, the record is over and slowly this western world — a kind of hazy, stoned-sounding western world — arises as a surprise at the end."
  • Kacey Musgraves had joined Willie Nelson during select dates of his 2014 tour. This collaboration came about while she was on Nelson's tour bus and asked him why he doesn't play the song live anymore. "He couldn't believe I knew it," she recalled to Radio.com. "I just really loved it. It's very honest and very country, [and] it's a neat perspective. He seemingly pulled a guitar out of a cloud of smoke and started strumming. I was of course dying inside a little bit."

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