Get In on the Ground Floor with Margo Price Now So You Can Call Everyone Bandwagoners Later
The only thing that sucked about Margo Price’s performance Tuesday night (1-19) on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is that her debut album is not due out until March 25th. It will be a cold, dark two months of toiling in the winter bleakness until traditional country fans will be delivered their reward for patience in the form of Midwest Farmer’s Daughter through Jack White’s Third Man Records.
Of course to those inhabiting the gentrifying streets of east Nashville—you know the kind, with their 3,000 Instagram followers, a stall in the vintage mall with a bunch of overpriced Country & Western crap they scrounge from the thrift stores, and an Airbnb in their backyard—well they’ve been hip on Margo for a while now, thank you very much. Who else in town can boast they once had Sturgill Simpson playing lead guitar in their band, and that they were the first to possess Third Man to cross into the country realm?
Just a couple of years removed from belonging to a band called Buffalo Clover with her hubby and guitarist Jeremy Ivey, Margo launched Margo Price and the Pricetags a while ago, and and like a truly vintage pair of Wayfarer frames, they quickly became one of the hottest commodities east of I-24. Though Margo doesn’t boast a proper album release in her solo arsenal just yet, some videos and live cuts have already helped Margo’s legacy precede her, especially the ribald of “This Town Gets Around” and the “It’s not who you know, but who you blow” line. But of course picking on Nashville is pretty easy pickings and not particularly original these days, and the song only represented the skinny surface of what the Illinois native is capable of.
Margo recorded the aforementioned Midwest Farmer’s Daughter at Sun Studios in Memphis before she even had a label lined up, shopped it around Nashville to be told “no” by virtually every outfit in town (and possibly finding the inspiration for “This Town Gets Around”) before she finally landed at Third Man. Now Price is poised (at least potentially) to join her former guitar player Sturgill in riding the swelling wave of the new interest in more traditional, and more authentic sounds emanating from Music City.
It may have seemed a little early for Margo, but no time is a bad time for a network television debut.
January 20, 2016 @ 7:53 pm
She was one of the openers at The Black Lillies’ album release show in Knoxville this past October. She blew me away. I’m anxious to get my hands on this album!
January 21, 2016 @ 3:26 pm
She has a Loretta Lynn vibe to her the way she sings and the content of her songs
January 20, 2016 @ 7:55 pm
Met her when she played in Austin a year ago and hung out with her when I went to Nashville last summer. She’s super talented and I’m glad she’s getting all this recognition!
January 20, 2016 @ 8:02 pm
Why do Colbert (or any pub) this early?
January 20, 2016 @ 9:16 pm
I think that’s a very good question and I don’t have a very good answer. The most plausible thing is that this is when the opportunity was, and they couldn’t be assured there would be another one closer to the release. Or perhaps they have more high-profile appearances in the works and this was just about priming the pump and getting the buzz cycle going. We’ll just have to see.
January 20, 2016 @ 8:08 pm
Any relation to the late great Ray Price?
January 20, 2016 @ 9:15 pm
No relation. Unless there’s some distant relation I’m not aware of.
January 21, 2016 @ 10:03 am
I heard that she’s the unacknowledged love child of Margo Smith and Ray Price.
Okay, not really; I doubt that she’s related to Ray (Price is a pretty common surname, after all), but her great uncle is songwriter Bobby Fischer (not the chess player) who lists Ray Price among the artists who have recorded his songs.
And she’s from Aledo, Illinois, hometown of Suzy Bogguss.
January 21, 2016 @ 2:15 pm
fun fact, bobby the chess player apparently tried to go in to songwriting in the 70s after meeting a writer, supposedly working tirelessly on his first song, which he never managed to finish
January 20, 2016 @ 8:18 pm
I love her already.
I wish I had caught her when she was in Knoxville.
She sounds like a honky tonk goddess.
January 20, 2016 @ 8:44 pm
Personally I can’t wait to here the whole album! Wow, this is what I’m talking about! Todd Villars
January 20, 2016 @ 8:47 pm
Wow. I’ll be picking that album up for sure!
January 20, 2016 @ 9:10 pm
Very good sound I must say, now if radio can start getting it’s head out of it’s ass we could hear this one the radio, but then again wishful thinking.
January 20, 2016 @ 10:09 pm
I really liked that! 🙂
January 20, 2016 @ 10:47 pm
Sturgill played with/for her? Details my good friend, details please and thank you.
January 21, 2016 @ 1:42 am
I first happened upon her sometime around Christmas of 2014 when “Since You Put Me Down” was featured on Rolling Stone’s website (yep, even Rolling Stone Country gets it right every now and then)
Outside of that, the only other dose of her I happened upon was a pretty enjoyable interview with Eldon Thacker on YouTube (check him out: his contributions to the musical community are much welcomed and one of the main ways I better match faces with names when I struggle finding where to stream some full-length albums featured here).
I do admit after then, she kind of slipped into the back of my field of vision for a while. But I enjoyed the little I heard from her before, and am grateful you’re reminding us why we should care now! =)
January 21, 2016 @ 6:27 am
‘get-in-on-the-ground-floor-with-margo-price-now-so-you-can-call-everyone-bandwagoners-later’
Mission accomplished.
Seriously though, I look for Colbert to be better for music–all types–than even Letterman was.
January 21, 2016 @ 8:07 am
What are you talking about? Letterman made point to have independent artist on his show. Off the top of my head…The punch brothers, Steve Martin (multiple times), shooter Jennings with Scott h. Biram, Justin townes Earle with Jason Isbell, Wanda Jackson, sturgill Simpson, and that little kid that plays the banjo. Just to name a few.
January 21, 2016 @ 11:04 am
Not really related to this particular discussion, but years ago when George Strait was a guest on Letterman one of the promos had a video of George saying something like “Most people don’t know that when I’m performing I have a live chicken under my hat”. Which seemed like a pretty wacky thing to say coming from a guy whose public persona is so straight-laced.
January 21, 2016 @ 11:45 am
George Strait on Letterman, when the hell was this? I would probably think pre-86 or something.
January 21, 2016 @ 12:50 pm
The more I think about it, it might have been Leno. Probably early 1990s.
January 21, 2016 @ 2:25 am
Wow, that’s a heck of a fantastic honky-tonk number, strongly reminiscent of the Bakersfield Sound. Certainly looking forward to the album as well.
Considering this performance and the one from Kacey Musgraves a few days ago, I’m definitely glad to see Colbert compensating for his previous disregard for country artists. Hopefully he will continue this new trend of inviting great country music guests.
January 21, 2016 @ 6:59 am
I hope the video above isn’t an example of her best work, because the song wasn’t particularly revolutionary.
If she’s hiding better in the wings then I hope she gets the attention she deserves, but if this is her best output I don’t think we’ll miss out on too much if she never gets her break.
January 21, 2016 @ 10:47 am
No new girl can catch a break with you. Why does every song have to be revolutionary? Why can’t women just make music that people enjoy? She’s clearly talented, and it’s not like there’s not a ton of non-revolutionary men catching a break out there all the time.
January 21, 2016 @ 1:19 pm
“She”™s clearly talented”
maybe if you compare her to Shania or Taylor.
If you compared Margo Price to an actually talented woman like Connie Smith then she’s about as talented as a tortilla.
January 22, 2016 @ 8:06 am
I was hooked on her stuff since I heard this cut… which, I think is a stronger song.
https://youtu.be/93r_hIpgFpo
When someone demonstrates a potential, isn’t it worth exploring more of their material before you write them off?
January 22, 2016 @ 10:46 am
I did say in my original comment that I hoped she had better stuff in the wings, but that part of my comment was overlooked by parties who seek to discredit me for some misperception of my personality that they have.
January 21, 2016 @ 11:33 am
At this point Fuzzy you’ve just become the guy who is negative for the sake of being negative. What is revolutionary is the fact that a major late night tv show just featured a virtual unknown female country singer with a steel guitar in her band singing a real country song. Why that isn’t good enough for you we will never know but the rest of us enjoyed the crap out of it.
January 21, 2016 @ 1:12 pm
because real or not it just wasn’t a very good song.
Why would anyone want to listen to mediocre music when a Patsy Cline live at the Opry is a few clicks plus a day or two shipping away on Amazon?
I can’t understand the mindset that the minute a new person actually makes Country Music we must spend our money to support them. Newsflash: just because someone makes actual Country Music doesn’t make them a good artist, and with almost a century of recorded music by women with better voices and better songs (seriously, who would choose Margo Price singing whatever this song is over Loretta singing “Van Lear Rose?”) there’s no good reason to justify spending money on people who don’t raise the bar a little higher.
Dottie West set the bar pretty high, but Lorrie Morgan moved it even higher, and Margo Price doesn’t measure up to those standards.
Why buy a Margo Price album when I can go get out my Rose Maddox albums? (which by the way had far better songs on them)
January 21, 2016 @ 7:10 pm
Newsflash #2: First off, no one is telling you that “we must spend our money to support them.” if you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
Secondly, “It just wasn”™t a very good song” much in the same way that your opinion just isn’t a very good opinion (purely subjective and meaningless) I’d suggest checking out the recorded version btw, which you can hear for free so as not to spend your hard earned money https://youtu.be/LtxUDSRfmto
Looking forward to the album, and will definitely be catching her live show asap!
January 21, 2016 @ 8:15 pm
*gasp I have a twin! I hope its an evil one or something hahahahahahaha
January 22, 2016 @ 4:24 pm
“there”™s no good reason to justify spending money on people who don”™t raise the bar a little higher”
She’ll get my money for the putting out quality country music. She doesn’t need to raise or revolutionize anything.
January 23, 2016 @ 8:08 am
She’s got better than that, don’t worry. Look her up on YouTube. “Since You Put Me Down” is gold. And “This Town Gets Around,” Trigger is right that the topic has been gone over and over again but she does bring insight to it and it’s just a great song. And the woman can SING.
January 21, 2016 @ 7:07 am
Gotta agree with others, that’s a great honky-tonk tune. I guess the best thing about the far-out release date I that I can include “Margo Price album” in my March budget.
As has been a trend in recent years,someone from outside the genre (Jack White) has a greater recognition and respect for genuine country music than those inside.
January 22, 2016 @ 8:04 am
I was hooked on her stuff since I heard this cut… which, I think is a stronger song.
https://youtu.be/93r_hIpgFpo
When someone demonstrates a potential, isn’t it worth exploring more of their material before you write them off?
January 21, 2016 @ 8:16 am
Pedal steel? A telecaster? I didn’t think they had those things in country music anymore!
January 21, 2016 @ 11:53 am
Does anyone know her guitarist’s name who played with her on Colbert? I loved his tone!
January 21, 2016 @ 3:53 pm
Shoot I saw Margo perform twinkle twinkle back in early 90 s . you’re all band wangoners. Don’t think his tone has much to do with his name. Couldn’t resist
January 21, 2016 @ 5:17 pm
“you know the kind, with their 3,000 Instagram followers, a stall in the vintage mall with a bunch of overpriced Country & Western crap they scrounge from the thrift stores, and an Airbnb in their backyard”
lol
January 21, 2016 @ 6:18 pm
Solid song. Great instrumentation. I’ll definitely be looking into that album and her other music.
January 21, 2016 @ 7:04 pm
Thanks for the lead, Trigger! Looking forward to seeing more from her!!!
January 24, 2016 @ 5:53 pm
I’m definitely on board and can’t wait for this album.
January 25, 2016 @ 4:04 pm
Thanks! I really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to hearing more.
September 15, 2016 @ 7:52 pm
I first saw her on SNL, had her album the next day. Just saw her in Chicago last week. She opened for Andrew Byrd. The wine and cheese crowd wasn’t there to see her, but I heard a lot of people say Damn, she’s awesome.