Live Virtual Session: Margo Price
by Jill Riley
July 20, 2020
Margo Price is a modern country artist, who in many ways, is the antithesis of everything the industry has become.
For example, the Country Top 40 is decorated with tracks that seem to parody the contemporary perception of country music; No. 12 on the chart is "I Love My Country" by Florida Georgia Line, which features the line: "ain't sorry, ain't nothin' to be sorry about, I love my country and I love my country up loud."
Meanwhile, Price's songwriting focuses on the tragic realism of rural life in America. Over the course of three albums, including the recently released That's How Rumors Get Started, Price uses the antique aesthetics of mid-century Americana to color tales about her own experiences on the down-and-out: losing the family farm, addiction, and infant mortality.
While middle-class Okies wax poetic about pontoon boats over embellished, hyper-produced tracks, Price utilizes the medium to express deep vulnerabilities and to uplift the down-and-out denizens of our de-industrialized geography.
Despite the grim subject matter, Price is aggressively optimistic. And why shouldn't she be? After years of gigging solo and with various country-rock bands, Price was signed by Third Man Records, a label founded by Jack White, and has garnered critical acclaim ever since.
After COVID-19 delayed the release of That's How Rumors Get Started, Price and Loma Vista Recordings — home of both Andrew Bird and Marilyn Manson — finally dropped the record on July 10. This most recent record, unlike her previous efforts, is more rock-oriented and less about circumstantial struggle. Instead, the Sturgill Simpson-produced LP finds the 37-year-old reckoning with her newfound stability and her continued investment in the ornate past of country music.
Price joined The Current's Jill Riley to discuss working with Simpson, her husband's COVID infection, the toxicity of the Nashville scene, and performing with her band while staying socially distant.
– Caleb Brennan
Songs Performed
02:50 "That's How Rumors Get Started"
07:53 "Letting Me Down"
31:18 "Stone Me"
All songs from Margo Price's 2020 album, That's How Rumors Get Started, available on Loma Vista Recordings.
External Link
Margo Price - official site
