Songfacts®:

• The opening track of Kacey Musgraves' sixth studio album, Deeper Well, is a stripped-down ballad inspired by the passing of her friend and mentor, John Prine. The country legend, who was 73, died in 2020 from complications relating to COVID-19.
  
  Musgraves, a self-proclaimed admirer of Prine, had become friends with him, even sharing the stage on a cruise in 2015 and a Colorado gig in 2017. His death left a deep void.
• The song's title and lyrics draw on the symbolism of cardinals as messengers from the spirit realm, a belief Prine himself held dear.
  
  "When cardinals appear, angels are near," Musgraves said in the CD zine made to accompany the record. "Unexplainable things started happening and cardinals started showing up on my doorstep soon after my good friend and mentor passed, John Prine. He always had a big connection to cardinals and felt that they were messengers from the spirit realm. He inspired this song, no doubt."
• This isn't the first time Prine has influenced Musgraves' work. Early in her career, she penned "(Burn One With) John Prine," a song that celebrates his rebellious spirit and the artistic kinship she felt with him.
  
  "This little girl comes up to me with her buddy... They wanted to take me out in the parking lot and get me high," Prine recalled to Rolling Stone: "I said, 'Uh, gee, thanks but... no, thanks.' We had our picture taken together and the next thing I know, I'm over at my record company, Oh Boy Records, and I hear this tape. It's Kacey singing this song about how she'd like to burn one with John Prine."
• Musgraves co-wrote and co-produced the song with Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. Tashian and Fitchuk worked with Musgraves on every Deeper Well track bar "The Architect," which was crafted with Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.
• Viktor Krauss, the brother of bluegrass star Alison Krauss, plays the double bass on this track.