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ALYSSE GAFKJEN
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ALYSSE GAFKJEN
Any way you look at it, Margo Price has come a long way.
Her journey ranges from soul-shouting shows with her old band Buffalo Clover at East Nashville’s Five Spot, to critically-adored country albums, a 2018 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and collaborations with legends like Loretta Lynn, Mavis Staples and Willie Nelson. She and her family even spent Thanksgiving with the Nelson family this year, enjoying a home-cooked feast at their Maui estate.
“It’s definitely a very surreal sentence to even come out of my mouth,” Price says in disbelief, now back in Nashville and rushing off to a last- minute rehearsal. Along her climb, she’s been hailed as a bold example of female empowerment, and a stalwart of country badassery. She released a memoir titled Maybe We’ll Make It in October and has traveled the world – which continues this winter with a 30-date headline tour. And for her fourth album, Strays, Price says she wanted to do some growing personally, as well.
But in her usual all-or-nothing fashion, Price did not mess around with half measures. Marking her first set of tunes written since the pandemic, Price adopted a daring new style for Strays, a mind-altering mix of rootsy twang and ’60s psychedelia. (Imagine Dolly Parton if she had been at Woodstock, with all the shimmering swagger that entails.) Likewise, Price also packed it with probing thoughts on life’s biggest themes, creating a delightful set high in both style and substance. And that makes sense considering how it started.
Back in the summer of 2020, Price snuck away to South Carolina with her husband, some mushrooms, and a stack of vinyl records, hoping to “let the juices flow.”
“We had been locked up with our kids and very isolated, and Jeremy had nearly died from Covid, so we were really stressed out and needed a trip together,” Price says, picking up on the unintentional, Willie-style dad joke as it came out. “I say a ‘trip,’ but we really did need to take some time together.”
As Price explains it, she was hoping to get out of her shell, shake off the expectations that come with success, and just focus on what she truly wanted the album to be. But what happened was even more “incredible,” with tons of laughs, an equal amount of tears, and a vinyl “osmosis” from Tom Petty, Patti Smith, and Big Brother and the Holding Company helping manifest a new vision.
A new sound came with it, with astrophysical synth lines, electro-drum loops, and classic-rocking guitar riffs weaving in and out of Price’s sharp, Illinois vocal. Looking back, she says that South Carolina trip was much more than a momentary blast of inspiration: It was a metamorphosis. She also gave up alcohol, feeling suddenly empowered to set aside the self-doubt she’d been grappling with her whole life.
“The thing I love about mushrooms is that they can rewire your brain so you’re using new neural pathways,” Price explains. “I think as adults we kind of get stuck into patterns of thought and feeling, like ‘Oh, I bet people just wanna hear a country album from me.’ You get so lost in your head, and it’s like, ‘I don’t wanna do what other people want me to do. I wanna do what’s inspiring.’”
Price is careful to note she is not a doctor, and not advocating for anyone to follow her footsteps. But it does seem like psychedelics are on a creativity comeback—both in the arts and beyond. The Beatles may have helped make them mainstream in the late ’60s, but more recently country star Kacey Musgraves opened up about how they helped her write 2021’s Star- Crossed. And even in everyday life, more and more therapists are open to microdosing to treat depression, anxiety, and addiction.
“I thought once my career took off that all my problems were just gonna be solved and everything was just gonna change,” Price says. “But actually, fame and money and those things, sometimes they just magnify those problems you have. A lot of my personality was wrapped up in being this ‘bad girl, party girl,’ but really, I’ve been insecure my whole life. People think I’m so confident and I’m such a badass, and it’s just being a woman in this society and all the things we do to try to fit into these molds.”
That all makes its way into Strays. With guests like Sharon Van Etten, Mike Campbell, and Lucius, Price dissects everything from her own self-image to unrealistic expectations put on women, sounding more at peace and more in command of her art than ever. One of the first songs written was the opening track, “Been to the Mountain,” which traces her long and sometimes painful journey to this new self-actualization, all with a fuzzed-out ’60s-rock feel.
“Can’t tell me nothin’ baby that’s a fact / I have been to the mountain and back,” Price proclaims. Elsewhere she reevaluates what drove the “pissed off ” country songs and her badass reputation on past albums like Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, turning “Lydia” into a rhymeless, melodyless look at her own anger with a nod to Townes Van Zandt or Bob Dylan.
Songs like “Time Machine” bounce with woozy, classic-pop whimsy, wishing for a return to more innocent days. “Radio” lays the proverbial car seat back for a sunset cruise with Petty-esque simplicity (and Van Etten’s soulful harmony), while Price’s own wistful voice shines in the six-minute piano-and-steel opus, “County Roads.” And with the Fleetwood Mac- inspired “Hell in the Heartland,” Price laments how honesty can get you in trouble even when you’re just trying to help.
Still, that honesty is the heart of her recent revelations, and on the first single “Change of Heart,” it stands at the center of Strays. “I quit trying to change the past / I’ve had a change of heart,” Price sings, digging deep into her motivations while ZZ Top-style guitars blare behind her. Eventually, this self-made Nashville star decides to just be “her” even if it’s not what people expect. And she hopes Strays might open a few other minds to that possibility, too.
“I really think so many people are lost and caught up in the wrong things,” Price says. “I just wanted to make something that tugs on people’s hearts, and just lets them know it’s okay to be human. Even if it’s ugly sometimes.”