ROUTES & BRANCHES
featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
January 22, 2023
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Promotional material for Margo Price's fourth full-length, Strays (Loma Vista), speaks to the setting for the sessions. Price and husband Jeremy Ivey embarked on a psychedelic drug-fueled vacation, with the intention of jump starting the creative process. While certain sonic elements bear a mind-expanding stamp, the more abiding result might have been to sharpen and clarify their artistic focus.
Strays arrives simultaneously with a companion book of sorts, Price's recently-published memoir, Maybe We'll Make It (University of Texas Press). As with almost any such recollection, the pre-fame days deliver the most interesting accounts, following Price from her Illinois childhood to her years as a starving hippie songwriter in Nashville, touring with (eventual) husband Jeremy Ivey and their band, Buffalo Clover (We were like Fleetwood Mac without any of the success), backing up Lilly Hiatt, and struggling to attract bookings. Of their inaugural tour, she writes: I was addicted to the road, to traveling, to meeting new people, to seeing new things. I knew I had to find a way to do this for the rest of my days. Spoiler: Maybe closes with the artist finally garnering the support she's earned from Jack White, whose Third Man Records releases her 2016 Midwest Farmer's Daughter.
Despite the decided country direction of that debut, the book makes a point that Margo Price has never been faithful to just one genre. Her subsequent records, 2017's All American Made and especially the Sturgill Simpson-produced That's How Rumors Get Started (2020) pursued her restless muse into rock, soul and even psychedelic directions. That trend continues with Strays, whose sessions find Price and producer Jonathan Wilson embracing classic rock and even pop.
The collection launches atop the thrumming organ and insistent bass of "Been To the Mountain". Price's manifesto explodes with self-assuredness: Used to be a lover, queen, and a drifter / A cowboy devil, a bride in a box and / A pilgrim and a thief, but it was me underneath. The crunchy "Space Truckin'" riff spirals toward a spoken/shouted bridge fueled by equal parts confidence and spite. Price channels that conviction into sexual abandon on "Light Me Up", an acoustic lullaby that erupts into a scorching guitar solo from Mike Campbell.
Lucius contributes gospel-adjacent vocals to "Anytime You Call", a tuneful statement of devotion and friendship that admits: We're not as stable as we seem. No matter the direction of Strays' songs, Margo Price's vocals provide a link to her roots. "Radio", with Sharon Van Etten, and the Jenny Lewis-esque "Time Machine" juxtapose that All American Made instrument with an indie pop synth pulse. The bubblegum spirit of the cuts belies Price's yearning lyrics, glancing over her shoulder for simpler times: I think I need to take some time out / And I wanna turn my phone off. On the more typical, piano based "Country Road", she mourns the pre-Covid passing of a bandmate: I wish I could have back / What I didn't know were the best years of my life.
Price's memoir attests that she and Ivey are incurable songwriters at heart, capable of great pathos at the drop of a phrase. Nowhere is this more evident than on Strays' closing cuts. With mournful, wide-sky reverb guitar, the lovely "Landfill" depicts life's collected memories in a heap: I could build a landfill of dreams I deserted ... Those mournful blues and a blood red rose. The session's true eye-opener is "Lydia", a recitation accompanied by Price's own acoustic and Drew Erickson's moving string arrangement. Switching between first and third person, the songwriter addresses the struggles of everyday life, from addiction to abortion, the lyrics incorporating snapshots from Price's own story alongside that of the titular character: Just make a decision, Lydia / Just make a decision. Both musically and poetically, "Lydia" is a stunner, especially when heard in the wake of Maybe We'll Make It. Margo Price's journey is fraught with struggle and setback, disrespect and abuse. She and Ivey lost a newborn child, Price has faced imprisonment, battled substance abuse and more. Strays portrays the artist as victor, rising to meet these challenges and to ensure her seat at the table.
- Jesse Malin, "Brooklyn (Walt Whitman in the Trash)" Fine Art of Self Destruction (Anniversary Reissue) (Melody Catalog, Feb 17)
- Angela Perley, "Praying for Daylight" Turn Me Loose (Perley, 23) D
- Bad Ends, "Little Black Cloud" Power and the Glory (Yep Roc, 23)
- Myron Elkins, "Nashville Money" Factories Farms & Amphetamines (Low Country Sound, 23)
- Jeb Loy Nichols, "Try Love" Under the Willow Tree EP (On-U Sound, 23) D
- Freakwater, "Fullerene" Scheherazade (Reissue) (Fluff & Gravy, 23) D
- Slaid Cleaves, "Next Heartbreak" single (Candy House, 23) D
- Benjamin Dakota Rogers, "Maggie" Paint Horse (Good People, Feb 17)
- Ryan Adams, "Atlantic City" Nebraska (PaxAm, 23)
- Karen Jonas, "Rock the Boat" The Restless (Yellow Brick, Mar 3) D
- Band of Heathens, "Stormy Weather" Simple Things (BoH, Mar 17) D
^ Margo Price, "Landfill" Strays (Loma Vista, 23)
- Matt Hillyer, "Holding Fast" Glorieta (State Fair, Feb 24) D
- Elijah Ocean, "Middle of a King-Sized Bed" single (Ocean, 23) D
- Erin Enderlin, "White Wine Fever" single (Black Crow, 23) D
- Lucero, "Macon If We Make It" Should've Learned By Now (Liberty & Lament, Feb 24)
- Hackles, "James' Drink" What a Beautiful Thing I Have Made (Jealous Butcher, Apr 7) D
- Bonny Doon, "Crooked Creek" single (Anti, 23) D
- boygenius, "True Blue" the record (Interscope, Mar 31) D
- Fruit Bats, "Rushin' River Valley" A River Running To Your Heart (Merge, Apr 14) D
- Fran, "Leaving" Leaving (Fire Talk, 23)
- Ruston Kelly, "The Weakness" The Weakness (Rounder, Apr 7) D
- Jenny O, "You Are Loved Eternally" Spectra (Mama Bird, Feb 24)
- Dave Hause, "Hazard Lights" Drive It Like It's Stolen (Blood Harmony, Apr 28) D
- CMAT, "Mayday" single (AWAL, 23) D
- Bria, "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin'" Cuntry Covers Vol 2 (Sub Pop, Feb 24)
- Florry, "Cowgirl In a Ditch" Sweet Guitar Solos EP (Dear Life, Jan 25) D
- Wednesday, "Chosen To Deserve" Rat Saw God (Dead Oceans, Apr 7) D
- Caroline Rose, "Miami" Art of Forgetting (New West, Mar 24) D
- Caroline Spence, "Mary Oliver (acoustic)" True North (Deluxe) (Rounder, Jun 16) D
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