Musgraves brings 'Same Tour, Different Trailer' to Rialto

She loves our little succulents. She lines her stage with them and plasters their images on the back walls.

Don’t be surprised if you see Musgraves’ tour bus Wednesday snaking through Saguaro National Park West as she makes her way to Rialto Theatre downtown. But the thought of a forest of saguaros might just be her tipping point.

“It’s become a good problem, but there are cactus everywhere,” Musgraves, the 26-year-old Grammy- and Country Music Association Award-winning singer/songwriter, said last week. “I’m very inspired by the landscape there.”

On Wednesday night, Musgraves will bring her “Same Tour, Different Trailer” show to the Rialto, one of many old, personality-rich theaters she will hit this spring. The stop is part of the second leg of — and a wink-wink twist on — her “Same Trailer, Different Park” tour that she launched earlier this year.

“We’ve had a lot of fun. The shows have been in older theaters across the U.S. Older, really vibey spaces,” she said, calling from outside one of those old theaters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “I really like playing places that have a lot of character like that. … They usually have balconies and they have standing room on the floor, which is kind of cool because it’s a mix of people sitting and listening. … They are just pretty, too. They look inspiring. They look a lot of times like a little music box.”

This is not the first time Musgraves — who snagged two dozen-plus award nominations and a pair of Grammy trophies (best country song and best country album) for her 2013 debut album “Same Trailer, Different Park” — has performed in Tucson. When she was 12 or 13, she played the Western Music Association Festival, an event that attracted thousands of Western music artists and fans.

“I used to be a big part of it,” she said. “At the time, when I was that age and my friends were listening to ’N Sync and Britney Spears — I was, too — I was like, ‘Mom, this is so lame.’ But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve really grown to appreciate and draw inspiration from what I was surrounded by and that music I grew up singing. Actually I’ve had to go back to my parents and say ‘Thanks for making me stick with it and for putting me around that music’ because it’s what’s made me stand out, drawing inspiration from that world now.”

A Texas native, she has been singing before audiences since she was 8 and lists among her influences John Prine and old school country musicians Ronnie Milsap, Bobbie Gentry and Glenn Campbell. She also is inspired by Jim Croce and Nancy Sinatra.

Her songwriting is influenced by what happens around her and to her. She takes a simple phrase — “Merry Go ‘Round” — and twists it to fit all avenues of small-town life: “Mama’s hooked on Mary Kay / Brother’s hooked on Mary Jane / Daddy’s hooked on Mary two doors down.” Everyday folks talk a big game but in the end let life pass them by (“Blowin’ Smoke”) and if we all “mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.”

The latter is the first single from Musgraves’ sophomore album, due out this summer.

“I’m really excited. I think it’s a good followup,” she said. “It’s a lot like the first one — it’s a lot of songs. It’s a lot of my brain. It’s not too conceptual, but we did get to explore a little bit. I think it just means that the third one will be a little further down the road so I’m excited by the evolution of it all. But I’m excited for everyone to hear it.”

Musgraves said she never really felt pressure to come out with an album that would be even more successful than “Same Trailer.”

“At the end of the day, I feel like people are going to either like it or not and I don’t let them affect me too much,” she said. “Selfishly all these songs and recordings start with the fact that they make me feel good. Other people can either love them or not, and that’s great. But it’s made because they make me feel good in the first place.”