Birmingham Sloss Fest profile: Margo Price
Margo Price will bring her brand of country to Sloss Fest July 15. (Danielle Holbert)
Performer: Margo Price
Sloss Fest: Playing on the Steam Stage on Sunday, July 15 from 4:45 p.m.-5:45 p.m.
Type of music: Modern traditional country.
About: Although her honky-tonk twang puts her squarely among country greats like Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, Margo Price calls herself a chameleon, comparing her musical style to ‘70s rocker David Bowie.
“I always feel like a chameleon,” Price noted in a recent New York Times article. “And that’s why I love David Bowie so much. He never stayed the same. He re-invented himself. People that have longevity in their careers, many times they are re-inventing themselves.”
Price is by no means a country traditionalist. Her songs ring with the sounds of everything from folk rock to psychedelic vamping to R&B. Perhaps Price says it best in her song, “Weakness,” released last summer: “Sometimes I’m Virginia Woolf/Sometimes I’m James Dean.”
Price shot to stardom almost overnight, with the release in 2016 of her first solo album, “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter,” on Jack White’s Third Man Records.
The album recounts Price’s years of “striking out and hard living in Nashville.” It immediately hit the top 10 on Billboard’s Country Albums Chart and appeared on best-of lists from Entertainment Weekly to NPR Music. Pitchfork called the album a “potential classic,” and Rolling Stone described it as “amazingly vivid songcraft.”
Price won Emerging Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Awards and the American Music Prize for the year’s best debut album.
Her sophomore album, “All American Made,” was no less successful, establishing her as a songwriter who is here to stay and proving she has what it takes to hang with the greats. Through the album, Price and her songwriting partner/husband, Jeremy Ivey, paint honest, outspoken portraits of men and women just struggling to make it. No topic is off limits, with the record focusing on everything from poverty to the gender gap to politics.
Price’s newfound fame is actually the product of years of hard work and sacrifice.
Raised in Aledo, Illinois, Price dropped out of college and moved to Nashville in 2003, where she met Ivey. They formed a band called Buffalo Clover and self-released three albums. But personal tragedy almost put a halt to her career.
“I lost my first-born son to a heart ailment,” said Price, “and I was really down and depressed. I was drinking too much. I was definitely lost. I did some things now that I regret very much that resulted in a brush with the law. Thank God I had my friends and family to keep me going. Coming through that, I thought, ‘I’m just going to write music that I want to hear.’ It was a big turning point.”
Price is now a familiar face on the country scene. She has appeared onstage with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson, to name a few.
“People have asked me, ‘Now that you’re having success, what are you going to write about?’” Price said. “A lot of what I wrote on my debut came out of my struggles in the music business, but we don’t have any shortage of material now. I’m just excited to finally have an audience and know that people are going to listen to our songs.”
Discography: “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” (2016) and “All American Made” (2017).
You might have heard: “A Little Pain,” “Hands of Time,” “Hurtin’ on the Bottle” and “About to Find Out.”
For fans of: Loretta Lynn, Karen Dalton, Bob Dylan, Etta James, Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton.
Social: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Sloss Music and Arts Festival takes place at the historic Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham July 14-15 and features more than 40 performers on four stages. Buy tickets here.
