Kacey Musgraves played special show Friday at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to celebrate the release of Deeper Well, and in addition to performing her new album in its entirety, the singer also brought out surprise guest Noah Kahan to perform “She Calls Me Back” together.

Originally a solo track on Kahan’s breakout 2022 album Stick Season, “She Calls Me Back” was re-released in October 2023 as a duet with Musgraves. 

“It was crazy. I knew she was cutting it, I knew there was a possibility it could happen, but it all happened really quickly,” Kahan told Rolling Stone of the new version. “Just hearing her voice, which is so iconic, pure, and beautiful — I was laughing to myself on the airplane, like I can’t believe this is my life. She crushed it, like she crushes everything.”

“Having her sing on ‘She Calls Me Back’ was really as simple as asking her to do it,” Kahan added to Rolling Stone. “We talked about songs she might want to do, and she gravitated towards this one. She was very cool about cutting it while I was on tour. She has so much going on, but made time, did an amazing job, was super communicative and really fun to work with.”

Six months after the duet’s release, the two artists finally had a chance to play the song together live at the Ryman Auditorium during the encore of Musgraves’ Deeper Well release show.

The Ryman gig also witnessed the live debuts of the majority of Deeper Well’s 14 songs, including standouts like “Anime Eyes” and “Giver/Taker.” To close out the show, Musgraves delivered a rendition of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Three Little Birds.”