WEBVTT - Margo Price 0:00:15.476 --> 0:00:15.956 Pushkin. 0:00:20.196 --> 0:00:23.116 Margot Price's new album, Hard Headed Woman, was recorded in 0:00:23.156 --> 0:00:26.076 the heart of Nashville at the legendary RCAA Studio A. 0:00:26.956 --> 0:00:29.516 That's the very place where the Nashville Sound was born 0:00:29.756 --> 0:00:32.516 and where greats like Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and Charlie 0:00:32.516 --> 0:00:36.036 Pride have all recorded. It's the perfect setting for Margo, 0:00:36.316 --> 0:00:38.716 who's as much a student of country's rich history as 0:00:38.716 --> 0:00:41.476 she is a fan of its fearless rule breakers. She's 0:00:41.556 --> 0:00:44.516 never taken the straight path herself, a journey she tells 0:00:44.516 --> 0:00:46.996 in her twenty twenty two memoir Maybe We'll Make It. 0:00:48.116 --> 0:00:50.676 On today's episode, Bruce Headlam talks with Margot about the 0:00:50.716 --> 0:00:53.236 making of her new album and her creative partnership with 0:00:53.276 --> 0:00:58.316 her husband and longtime collaborator Jeremy Ivy. Margo also shares 0:00:58.356 --> 0:01:01.476 her thoughts on the inauthenticity of mainstream country and why 0:01:01.516 --> 0:01:03.996 she continues to stay committed to pouring both the extreme 0:01:04.076 --> 0:01:10.396 craft and care into every song. She writes, this is 0:01:10.476 --> 0:01:20.316 broken record, real musicians, real conversations. Here's Bruce Headlam's conversation 0:01:20.356 --> 0:01:22.756 with Margot Price. She starts by singing her new song 0:01:23.036 --> 0:01:23.996 Nowhere is. 0:01:23.956 --> 0:01:50.276 Where, nowherese Where. 0:01:52.836 --> 0:01:57.356 I Come from where nothing gros. 0:01:57.356 --> 0:01:59.756 Who's but the debuta who. 0:01:59.796 --> 0:02:06.836 In the dry rivers run, and the dry rivers run. 0:02:11.276 --> 0:02:17.876 Nowhere elsewhere nineteen ninety nine. 0:02:18.356 --> 0:02:27.996 House speeding down the gravel road, Passers County Line, Passmbers 0:02:28.036 --> 0:02:29.636 County Line. 0:02:34.036 --> 0:02:39.636 On your way down, won't you pick me up? 0:02:40.636 --> 0:02:41.556 If there's. 0:02:42.836 --> 0:02:51.276 Room enough, you'vega gus in the truck. If you go 0:02:51.396 --> 0:02:58.156 in nowhere, I could use or ride point. 0:02:57.996 --> 0:03:30.236 The headline south and nowhere esewhere. 0:03:31.956 --> 0:03:38.116 Thoughts go along between the combine clouds and the waves 0:03:38.196 --> 0:03:43.356 of doud and the miles and miles of course, and 0:03:43.516 --> 0:03:46.676 the miles and miles of course. 0:03:50.636 --> 0:03:56.156 On your way down, won't pay me up? 0:03:57.276 --> 0:03:58.156 If there's. 0:03:59.396 --> 0:04:07.236 Room enough and you've got gas in the truck, if 0:04:07.276 --> 0:04:14.596 you're going over, I could use a ride. Put the 0:04:14.716 --> 0:04:18.796 headlights suth in, turn the radio along. 0:04:19.356 --> 0:04:20.196 Will be good. 0:04:20.196 --> 0:04:26.516 It's gone when the sun comes up, till the highway 0:04:26.716 --> 0:04:31.996 stops and the wheel's falled in me engine russ. 0:04:33.876 --> 0:04:38.956 Till the pavement turns, tomorrow burns into a blaze. 0:04:39.276 --> 0:04:44.516 Glory, got no regrets. 0:04:44.316 --> 0:04:48.156 Lot of cigaree red rewrite the story. 0:04:50.596 --> 0:04:58.236 On your way down? Won't pie me? If there's. 0:04:59.476 --> 0:05:07.516 Room love and you've got guas in trouble if you 0:05:07.756 --> 0:05:15.556 go in a could use all right, what the head. 0:05:15.356 --> 0:05:16.716 Lot so thing? 0:05:32.716 --> 0:05:35.516 Margot, thank you for coming in and we're talking about 0:05:35.516 --> 0:05:37.836 many things, but we're going to talk about Hard Headed Woman, 0:05:38.676 --> 0:05:41.716 which is your new album. Can you talk a little 0:05:41.716 --> 0:05:44.876 bit about the idea you had going into this album, 0:05:44.916 --> 0:05:47.836 how it might have differed from your last album. 0:05:48.276 --> 0:05:51.236 Yeah, I'm so happy to be here. I'm a big 0:05:51.316 --> 0:05:53.396 fan of this podcast, by the way, Thank you so much. 0:05:54.716 --> 0:06:00.156 I really just wanted to get back to the songwriting 0:06:00.516 --> 0:06:05.316 and the storytelling with this record. And I had so 0:06:05.436 --> 0:06:08.756 much fun on the last album exploring you know, more 0:06:09.116 --> 0:06:13.476 psychedelic rock territory with Jonathan Wilson, and that seeped over 0:06:13.556 --> 0:06:16.116 into our live shows with you know, we were doing 0:06:16.116 --> 0:06:18.996 lots of double drums and I jumped back there on 0:06:19.036 --> 0:06:22.756 the drum kit and lots of jams that you know, 0:06:22.876 --> 0:06:28.276 went on for ten to twenty minutes. But I really 0:06:28.316 --> 0:06:32.076 wanted to get back to, you know, more stripped down, 0:06:32.876 --> 0:06:34.436 raw storytelling. 0:06:35.396 --> 0:06:38.396 Did you come in with more finished songs for this 0:06:38.436 --> 0:06:41.636 one than the last one, which was a little more experimental, 0:06:41.636 --> 0:06:42.476 a little more ragged. 0:06:43.556 --> 0:06:47.036 Yeah, we I mean it took a really long time 0:06:47.036 --> 0:06:48.636 for me to get in the studio. I won't go 0:06:48.796 --> 0:06:51.636 into all the details on why, but we were writing 0:06:51.676 --> 0:06:54.156 on the road. We were writing. We went out to 0:06:54.396 --> 0:06:58.596 Joshua Tree and wrote some songs. My husband and I 0:06:58.676 --> 0:07:01.276 kind of stayed in the house out there, and then 0:07:02.636 --> 0:07:05.036 ended up getting together with Rodney Krall, one of my 0:07:05.036 --> 0:07:09.556 favorite songwriters in Nashville, and wrote with him. Wrote with 0:07:10.556 --> 0:07:14.076 another friend of mine, her name is Marien Negler. So yeah, 0:07:14.116 --> 0:07:16.756 we had we did a lot of pre production for 0:07:16.796 --> 0:07:20.836 this album. We went over to the friend's house. He's 0:07:20.836 --> 0:07:23.876 got a home studio and just the band and I 0:07:23.956 --> 0:07:27.916 were laying things down and trying things out before we 0:07:27.956 --> 0:07:32.476 got into RCAA, because I did want to have a 0:07:32.596 --> 0:07:34.916 very clear cut. I think country music is more exact 0:07:34.956 --> 0:07:36.676 than people think. I think a lot of people think 0:07:36.676 --> 0:07:41.076 it's so easy to you know, to play country music 0:07:41.196 --> 0:07:45.756 whenever folk Americana, But you've got to have all the 0:07:45.836 --> 0:07:48.956 parts there and everything has to give other things space. 0:07:49.316 --> 0:07:52.676 And so there was a lot of a lot more 0:07:52.676 --> 0:07:54.676 planning with this one, for sure. 0:07:55.116 --> 0:07:58.796 So you mentioned Jeremy, your husband, your partner in crime, 0:07:59.476 --> 0:08:02.116 and you're writing partner. How do you guys write together? 0:08:02.276 --> 0:08:03.116 Tell me about that? 0:08:04.156 --> 0:08:07.716 Yeah, so sometimes we sit down and you know, completely 0:08:08.476 --> 0:08:12.476 blink slate and work from the ground up. Other times 0:08:12.556 --> 0:08:16.116 we'll go off separately and then come back into the 0:08:16.196 --> 0:08:19.556 room and show, you know, show each other the idea is. 0:08:20.276 --> 0:08:23.476 Sometimes yeah, it'll be something that like he'll have an 0:08:23.516 --> 0:08:26.356 idea for a title, and he'll throw it to me 0:08:26.756 --> 0:08:28.836 and then I'll work on it and then we'll come 0:08:28.836 --> 0:08:33.396 back together. But each one is unique in the way 0:08:33.436 --> 0:08:35.836 that it's kind of born. I think the best ones 0:08:36.236 --> 0:08:39.996 come when the melody and everything is in the words 0:08:40.036 --> 0:08:43.196 and everything's all just rapid fire. That's kind of how 0:08:43.836 --> 0:08:46.796 Don't Wake Me Up really came about. Like that. He 0:08:47.036 --> 0:08:50.316 found this notebook of mine and a poem I'd scribbled 0:08:50.316 --> 0:08:54.316 down a couple of years ago, and just was like, 0:08:54.396 --> 0:08:56.316 this is such a great poem. We should make this 0:08:56.356 --> 0:08:58.196 into a song. And so then he just started playing 0:08:58.196 --> 0:09:03.036 this very simple blues progression and we had the whole 0:09:03.036 --> 0:09:06.076 thing written like ten minutes. It was like it was 0:09:06.116 --> 0:09:07.796 so fun, you know, I felt like I could have 0:09:07.796 --> 0:09:09.916 written ten more verses to that one. 0:09:10.476 --> 0:09:14.276 I love that song because it's like an encyclopedia song. 0:09:14.316 --> 0:09:17.596 People don't do it those things anymore. But like I've 0:09:17.596 --> 0:09:20.876 been everywhere the old I guess it was Hank Snow 0:09:20.916 --> 0:09:23.516 did that song end of the World as we know 0:09:23.596 --> 0:09:25.556 at ori em. You know, just people just like We're 0:09:25.596 --> 0:09:27.196 just gonna It's every. 0:09:27.036 --> 0:09:30.916 Variation, all the places. Yeah, it really started after I 0:09:30.956 --> 0:09:37.196 was reading a Frank Stanford poem and I loved that 0:09:37.316 --> 0:09:40.956 duality of like, what's going on in the world currently 0:09:41.036 --> 0:09:45.036 and still thinking about all the places you can dream. 0:09:45.196 --> 0:09:48.756 I should say this is primarily an album. It's about you. 0:09:48.836 --> 0:09:51.836 It's a lot of love songs, but the outside world 0:09:51.916 --> 0:09:55.556 does kind of weave its way in and out, sometimes 0:09:55.596 --> 0:10:00.756 in really unexpected places. There's a beautiful line in one 0:10:00.836 --> 0:10:03.596 song where you're talking about listening to the jukebox while 0:10:03.676 --> 0:10:07.636 democracy falls, and it's completely unexpected. It's like an easter 0:10:07.716 --> 0:10:08.676 egg in the middle of this. 0:10:09.756 --> 0:10:11.796 Yeah, I think even yeah, when you're in the middle 0:10:11.836 --> 0:10:16.796 of a moment with with somebody or you know, with 0:10:16.836 --> 0:10:18.596 your family, that's kind of how it is, you know, 0:10:18.636 --> 0:10:22.196 those the dark things that they creep in there. But 0:10:22.316 --> 0:10:26.596 it's Yeah, I'm especially proud of that line. 0:10:27.076 --> 0:10:30.236 Tell me about meeting up with Rodney Crowell and how 0:10:30.316 --> 0:10:31.276 that came about. 0:10:31.836 --> 0:10:35.596 Yes, I've been covering his work for a really long time, 0:10:35.676 --> 0:10:41.756 and I think he shared a version of that I 0:10:41.796 --> 0:10:44.836 did of ain't living long like this and kind of 0:10:45.076 --> 0:10:49.756 started creeping into his world. Actually, him and Emmy Lou 0:10:49.836 --> 0:10:53.516 Harris and myself we were at a benefit and we 0:10:53.516 --> 0:10:56.716 were playing some songs, just passing the guitar, just me 0:10:56.836 --> 0:10:59.276 with the two of them. It was just so intimidating, 0:11:00.076 --> 0:11:04.036 and it was for a really good cause. And I 0:11:04.116 --> 0:11:06.436 was kind of, you know, wood shopping these tunes with them, 0:11:06.756 --> 0:11:12.916 and they were so support They were singing along like 0:11:12.956 --> 0:11:15.476 I'm close to you and on these songs before we'd 0:11:15.516 --> 0:11:18.276 even went into the studio, and I knew that was 0:11:18.316 --> 0:11:20.196 a good sign and don't wake me up. They were 0:11:20.196 --> 0:11:23.796 there in those early days and so just having them 0:11:23.876 --> 0:11:26.796 kind of building me up and going through these transitions 0:11:26.836 --> 0:11:29.876 that I've been in. I had left my managers, left 0:11:29.916 --> 0:11:34.076 my band, but Rodney was like more than happy to 0:11:34.116 --> 0:11:37.476 write with me. And really we were kind of pulling 0:11:37.556 --> 0:11:43.076 so directly from his style on like Red Eye Flight, 0:11:43.876 --> 0:11:46.356 that I thought, man, it would be killer to get 0:11:46.436 --> 0:11:49.076 Rodney on this song and went out to his house, 0:11:50.196 --> 0:11:52.436 got to hear some songs he was working on, and 0:11:52.716 --> 0:11:55.716 he helped us finish Bastards as well, and just watching 0:11:55.796 --> 0:11:58.276 him turn a phrase in real time and seeing kind 0:11:58.276 --> 0:12:00.156 of how he does it. He'd try one thing and 0:12:00.156 --> 0:12:02.236 then he'd keep taking it further, and well, what about this? 0:12:02.316 --> 0:12:06.196 What about this? He had this line in don't let 0:12:06.196 --> 0:12:08.636 the bastards get you down that he threw out I 0:12:08.756 --> 0:12:12.556 just let every time I hear it, he said, Cocaine 0:12:12.596 --> 0:12:17.676 and poontang pleasure don't make a man of measure. I said, 0:12:17.716 --> 0:12:20.756 I don't think I can sing that word in a song, 0:12:20.996 --> 0:12:23.716 but I love that you threw that out there. 0:12:24.996 --> 0:12:28.116 Wow, well cocaine made it in it. 0:12:28.076 --> 0:12:30.516 Sure did. Yeah, that was my line, mel the cocaine 0:12:30.556 --> 0:12:32.996 in existence couldn't keep their nose out of my business. 0:12:33.276 --> 0:12:35.916 Yeah. Well, he's a great songwriter. He is. 0:12:35.956 --> 0:12:36.916 He's unmatched. 0:12:37.276 --> 0:12:39.756 Can you think of something else in Red Eye, which 0:12:39.756 --> 0:12:42.716 I think is a great song on this album. Was 0:12:42.756 --> 0:12:45.236 there anything musical he provided for that as well? Or 0:12:45.236 --> 0:12:46.196 was it mainly lyrical? 0:12:47.036 --> 0:12:49.676 A lot of those chords were Jeremy coming up with 0:12:49.716 --> 0:12:53.836 those chords, but it was mostly getting the lyrics dialed 0:12:53.876 --> 0:12:57.836 in on both those songs that I don't know who 0:12:58.396 --> 0:13:00.876 you think you are, but I sure know who I 0:13:00.956 --> 0:13:04.476 ain't like that was all Rodney like twisting these things. 0:13:04.516 --> 0:13:08.116 I just love his Texas vernacular. 0:13:08.516 --> 0:13:11.316 Are there things you would the next time you sit 0:13:11.396 --> 0:13:13.636 down to write, You'll think, what would Is there a 0:13:13.916 --> 0:13:16.396 Rodney thing? Yeah? What would Rodney do? Is that? 0:13:16.756 --> 0:13:17.916 Yeah? What would Rodney do? 0:13:19.276 --> 0:13:19.476 Yeah? 0:13:19.476 --> 0:13:21.356 We had so much fun over there that day, just 0:13:21.396 --> 0:13:25.356 swapping stories with him and passing the guitar around. And 0:13:25.436 --> 0:13:31.116 he has this really old black acoustic guitar that everybody 0:13:31.156 --> 0:13:34.036 has signed. It's got Johnny Cash's name is scratched into it. 0:13:34.076 --> 0:13:37.036 And at the end of the right he had me 0:13:37.116 --> 0:13:41.476 sign his guitar. Wow, it was like a rite of passage. 0:13:41.836 --> 0:13:43.716 And I had him sign mine too. I have a 0:13:43.796 --> 0:13:47.356 guitar with a bunch of signatures. But it's just really 0:13:47.356 --> 0:13:52.036 surreal after like I said, just kind of digging into 0:13:52.116 --> 0:13:56.836 his work not only as a songwriter and a lyricist, 0:13:56.836 --> 0:13:59.356 but I'm a huge fan of his memoir China Berry 0:13:59.356 --> 0:14:04.236 Sidewalks was brilliant, and so being able to kind of 0:14:04.236 --> 0:14:06.356 have him as a mentor and say, yeah, it's okay, 0:14:06.356 --> 0:14:08.996 it's okay if you if you pull from me, all 0:14:09.156 --> 0:14:10.756 I'll go ahead and put my name on it with you. 0:14:10.876 --> 0:14:12.676 And my blessing is. 0:14:12.596 --> 0:14:14.636 That one of the things that inspired you to write 0:14:14.716 --> 0:14:15.276 your memoir. 0:14:16.276 --> 0:14:21.036 Definitely had his memoirs beautiful. I've got a big thing 0:14:21.036 --> 0:14:24.156 about whenever I get into an artist, I immediately try 0:14:24.196 --> 0:14:25.956 to go see if there's any books written on them, 0:14:26.076 --> 0:14:31.316 or even better, like a memoir. And I think the 0:14:31.396 --> 0:14:35.196 reason I wanted to write my book was really just 0:14:35.276 --> 0:14:39.436 so I didn't forget all of the all of the 0:14:39.676 --> 0:14:42.636 coming up and you know, all those like times of struggle, 0:14:42.716 --> 0:14:48.796 because I never have journals really, and it's I was 0:14:49.596 --> 0:14:52.876 using a lot of substances and drinking very heavily in 0:14:53.116 --> 0:14:56.356 a lot of my early days in Nashville, and so 0:14:56.396 --> 0:15:00.196 it's kind of like putting together pieces of a crime scene, 0:15:00.636 --> 0:15:02.956 you know. I had had to ask sometimes. 0:15:02.636 --> 0:15:07.076 A literal crime scene. Yes, yes, yeah, you could have 0:15:07.116 --> 0:15:10.796 the same tagline as Keith rich and his memoir, which 0:15:10.836 --> 0:15:12.476 is surprise. I remember it all. 0:15:13.876 --> 0:15:17.236 Yes, it was so good too. I love I've read 0:15:17.236 --> 0:15:19.796 it and then we've also listened to it on tape 0:15:19.876 --> 0:15:22.316 back when we were touring in like an astro van 0:15:22.436 --> 0:15:25.116 with my old band Buffalo Clover. We would just always 0:15:25.156 --> 0:15:29.516 have Keith Richards life on and like his voice while 0:15:29.556 --> 0:15:31.676 he's saying it, it is just so it's so fun 0:15:31.716 --> 0:15:33.636 to listen to. I just remember him being like, you know, 0:15:33.796 --> 0:15:37.396 the purest cocaine was taro it. 0:15:39.036 --> 0:15:41.676 But I was going to mention Merle Haggard because there 0:15:41.756 --> 0:15:45.836 was such a there's such a kind of Roy Nichols 0:15:47.436 --> 0:15:51.476 guitar sound on a lot of these songs, but starting 0:15:51.516 --> 0:15:54.116 with the first one, starting with Don't let the Bastards 0:15:54.116 --> 0:15:54.916 Get You Down. 0:15:55.716 --> 0:15:59.356 I really love all the tones we were able to achieve. 0:15:59.596 --> 0:16:04.316 My guitarist Jamie Davis, who's been with me since the beginning, 0:16:04.356 --> 0:16:07.476 played on Midwest Farmer's Daughter and All American Maid. He 0:16:08.836 --> 0:16:12.076 is just so thoughtful in what he plays, and it's 0:16:12.116 --> 0:16:15.316 not ever too showy. It's like melodic serves the song. 0:16:16.476 --> 0:16:18.996 Him and Russ Paul, who came in to play pedal steel, 0:16:18.996 --> 0:16:21.556 and Russ Paul's the absolute legend and has just played 0:16:21.596 --> 0:16:27.036 on everybody's stuff. The way that they had this kind 0:16:27.076 --> 0:16:30.276 of musical conversation with each other throughout the whole album, 0:16:30.356 --> 0:16:32.796 it's just it's brilliant. And I think it was fun 0:16:32.796 --> 0:16:35.556 for Russ too, because you know, there were songs where 0:16:35.556 --> 0:16:38.076 we're like, let's gritty it up, like Red Eye Flight. 0:16:38.156 --> 0:16:41.076 He had his his pedal steel sounds like a semi 0:16:41.076 --> 0:16:44.076 truck just plowing through and I don't know if he 0:16:44.116 --> 0:16:46.316 gets to do that on all all of the sessions 0:16:46.316 --> 0:16:47.116 that he plays. 0:16:47.556 --> 0:16:50.516 And the other one, which I think is an absolute killer, 0:16:51.676 --> 0:16:53.516 is love Me like you used to do. 0:16:53.596 --> 0:16:57.716 Oh thank You. That song was actually written for me 0:16:58.556 --> 0:17:02.156 by a dear friend of mine. His name is Stephen Knutsen, 0:17:02.476 --> 0:17:08.396 and I've known him for nearly twenty years. Brilliant songwriter, 0:17:08.636 --> 0:17:14.156 brilliant singer as well, and painter and just kind of 0:17:15.036 --> 0:17:18.756 all around talented human who's just working at a grocery 0:17:18.756 --> 0:17:21.516 store in Nashville, not really doing anything with his music. 0:17:22.156 --> 0:17:24.396 And he wrote a song for me a few years 0:17:24.436 --> 0:17:26.156 back that I put out. It's called it Ain't Drunk 0:17:26.236 --> 0:17:30.436 Driving if You're riding a Horse, And so he sent 0:17:30.476 --> 0:17:34.356 me this one, and I just knew I had to 0:17:35.076 --> 0:17:37.596 sing it. And you know, there's a couple of lines 0:17:37.636 --> 0:17:41.236 in there, like using drugs for the masses and rose 0:17:41.276 --> 0:17:44.356 colored glasses until we can't even see what is true. 0:17:44.436 --> 0:17:47.436 It was like, I don't, you know, I don't often 0:17:47.556 --> 0:17:50.756 want to just cover a song that maybe I haven't 0:17:50.756 --> 0:17:53.516 had a hand in writing. But he wrote it almost 0:17:53.676 --> 0:17:58.236 from a perspective of mine and just knowing me so long. 0:17:58.676 --> 0:18:02.516 You could also close your eyes and imagine Tanya Tucker 0:18:02.596 --> 0:18:06.316 doing it, or any of the kind of I wish 0:18:06.356 --> 0:18:09.676 she would, Yeah, maybe she, maybe she will. Here that 0:18:09.796 --> 0:18:11.436 I thought that about a lot of these songs. I 0:18:11.476 --> 0:18:14.556 know you are the artist. You don't write to have 0:18:14.636 --> 0:18:18.276 other people cover your songs. I know they have, But 0:18:18.676 --> 0:18:21.636 on this album, I thought, well, who's not going to 0:18:21.836 --> 0:18:23.956 want to cover Close to You or Wild at Heart? 0:18:23.996 --> 0:18:27.476 It just seemed Yeah, I wanted it to feel timeless. 0:18:27.516 --> 0:18:31.196 I didn't want it to feel like current or too old. 0:18:31.276 --> 0:18:34.476 It just can live in a space that's a forever 0:18:34.556 --> 0:18:35.796 space hopefully. 0:18:36.676 --> 0:18:39.676 Well that's an interesting question because I was thinking about 0:18:39.676 --> 0:18:42.116 this album, and I was thinking about, you know, people 0:18:42.116 --> 0:18:45.036 who are performing now, and I know you're not on 0:18:45.076 --> 0:18:49.756 the sort of pop end of Nashville country songwriting. I 0:18:49.916 --> 0:18:52.916 just looked up out of sheer interest, the top thirty 0:18:52.956 --> 0:18:57.076 songs on the country charts this week, and I think 0:18:57.076 --> 0:19:00.876 there were three women. All the rest were men. All 0:19:00.916 --> 0:19:04.436 the rest may have been more than Walman actually, but they. 0:19:04.276 --> 0:19:05.356 Were Morgan who. 0:19:05.796 --> 0:19:10.556 Yeah, I get the feeling. His is the album everybody 0:19:10.636 --> 0:19:12.836 falls asleep to and it just keeps playing. 0:19:12.916 --> 0:19:15.076 And it's got you know, each song has like thirty 0:19:15.116 --> 0:19:18.276 co writers on it. It's ridiculous. Yeah, I try to. 0:19:18.676 --> 0:19:20.636 I try to stay out of their side of town 0:19:20.716 --> 0:19:23.796 and hope stay out of mind. That's why I covered 0:19:23.836 --> 0:19:26.436 that George Jones song and just don't give a damn right. 0:19:26.676 --> 0:19:28.316 So that's felt like a bit A couple of the 0:19:28.356 --> 0:19:31.996 covers felt a little bit like this is you talking 0:19:32.036 --> 0:19:34.436 to your hometown. 0:19:34.916 --> 0:19:38.076 Yeah, I think you could even say love me like 0:19:38.116 --> 0:19:41.876 you used to. Is could be too. It could be 0:19:41.916 --> 0:19:45.196 to a lover and that's probably who was written for, 0:19:45.676 --> 0:19:50.476 but it could also be about you know, maybe fans 0:19:50.516 --> 0:19:53.356 who've turned their back on me, or maybe people who 0:19:53.396 --> 0:19:56.876 don't who don't like me because of you know, what 0:19:56.956 --> 0:19:59.156 I stand for or things I've said in the past. 0:20:00.316 --> 0:20:03.676 Yeah, we'll be right back with more from Margot Price 0:20:03.716 --> 0:20:04.436 and Bruce Hadlam. 0:20:04.556 --> 0:20:11.596 After the Break, your last album was far less country. 0:20:11.676 --> 0:20:14.236 Are you comfortable saying, yeah, I'm a country artist, I'm Nashville, 0:20:14.916 --> 0:20:15.756 this is who I am. 0:20:16.716 --> 0:20:21.076 Well, definitely, I've lived in Nashville longer than I've lived 0:20:21.956 --> 0:20:26.836 in my hometown or in Illinois, and it's a huge 0:20:26.876 --> 0:20:32.396 piece of my identity, of my soul and country music 0:20:32.436 --> 0:20:36.516 as well. I love it. I don't think anybody can 0:20:37.556 --> 0:20:40.116 own it. I don't think any one group of people 0:20:40.396 --> 0:20:43.716 can say this is country music. I mean, you really 0:20:43.716 --> 0:20:47.156 have to clarify when somebody says I like country music, 0:20:47.196 --> 0:20:50.636 you have to say, well, what kind? It's not cut 0:20:50.676 --> 0:20:54.196 and dry like that. And I'm not a cut and 0:20:54.276 --> 0:20:59.076 dry artist. I love so many different types of music, 0:20:59.996 --> 0:21:01.796 you know. I feel like when I started, I wanted 0:21:01.876 --> 0:21:05.956 to be like a folk singer and country and everything 0:21:05.956 --> 0:21:08.916 it all comes from the blues, even rock, and you know, 0:21:08.956 --> 0:21:11.956 it's all it's all in this great, big melting pot. 0:21:12.316 --> 0:21:16.316 And you know, I was in soul bands and had 0:21:16.476 --> 0:21:20.236 horn section and backup singers and have done James Brown 0:21:20.316 --> 0:21:24.476 covers and there's just too many things to want to 0:21:24.516 --> 0:21:28.556 just whittle myself down to I'm a country music artist. 0:21:28.876 --> 0:21:32.636 And that is why I think that the label or 0:21:32.676 --> 0:21:36.956 the genre Americana is helpful because it gives a space 0:21:37.356 --> 0:21:41.556 for people who are just we're writing, you know, story songs, 0:21:41.756 --> 0:21:48.396 We're using real instruments, we're playing from a genuine, deep 0:21:48.436 --> 0:21:53.156 down place, and so yeah, I hate labels, I hate genres, 0:21:53.476 --> 0:21:57.596 but it is a beautiful thing in a place to 0:21:57.596 --> 0:22:00.916 have Americana music. Oh, I just saw Machine Gun. Kelly 0:22:00.956 --> 0:22:02.996 came out with an album. It has an album coming 0:22:02.996 --> 0:22:07.316 out it's called like Americana Something's And we had Bob 0:22:07.396 --> 0:22:10.156 Dylan do the intro for Have you seen that yet? 0:22:10.636 --> 0:22:11.716 Is that really Bob Dylan? 0:22:12.196 --> 0:22:14.676 I think somebody confirmed it's really Bob Dylan. It's not Ai. 0:22:15.436 --> 0:22:19.156 Really. Yeah, At this point, the difference between Bob Dylan 0:22:19.156 --> 0:22:22.116 and Ai Bob Dylan is probably a pretty thin one, 0:22:22.156 --> 0:22:22.476 isn't it. 0:22:22.516 --> 0:22:25.676 Oh No, don't say that about my precious Bobby. 0:22:25.996 --> 0:22:28.676 Okay, Well, we're going to talk about actually your early 0:22:28.676 --> 0:22:30.556 influences because you didn't grow up in Nashville. You grew 0:22:30.636 --> 0:22:33.436 up unlike the vast majority of people who play country music. 0:22:33.436 --> 0:22:34.836 You actually grew up on a farm. 0:22:35.156 --> 0:22:37.596 Did Yeah. I grew up in a very rural area. 0:22:38.476 --> 0:22:42.716 Three thousand people in my hometown, and we lived outside 0:22:42.716 --> 0:22:45.596 of the town, no close neighbors and down a gravel 0:22:45.676 --> 0:22:47.436 road and all that cliched shit. 0:22:48.676 --> 0:22:51.316 You talked very movingly in your book about the problems 0:22:51.756 --> 0:22:55.236 that farmers were having at that point, and started with 0:22:55.276 --> 0:22:58.196 the boycott of the Soviet Union. It was interesting. I 0:22:58.236 --> 0:23:00.476 didn't know that's what led to so many of the 0:23:00.516 --> 0:23:01.716 foreclosures in the eighties. 0:23:02.116 --> 0:23:07.196 Yeah, it took a lot of like interviewing my family 0:23:07.276 --> 0:23:09.876 to kind of find out why they lost the farm. 0:23:10.236 --> 0:23:13.236 It was, you know, I thought at times people said, oh, 0:23:13.236 --> 0:23:15.036 it was a bad drought and there was a bad 0:23:15.116 --> 0:23:18.236 drought that year. Other times it was, oh, you know 0:23:18.276 --> 0:23:23.356 this corrupt man in town who was laundering money and 0:23:23.916 --> 0:23:28.636 is in prison now, And other people were saying, oh, no, 0:23:28.716 --> 0:23:32.516 it was because the government had us put in these 0:23:32.636 --> 0:23:34.796 green bins to dry our own corn, and then we 0:23:34.796 --> 0:23:39.196 all went bankrupts. There's so many problems, and it's so 0:23:39.356 --> 0:23:42.996 hard for farmers to make a living. That's why I 0:23:42.996 --> 0:23:46.436 feel like, even though I'm not a farmer, I connect 0:23:46.436 --> 0:23:49.556 with them because it's the same. It's like a music career. 0:23:49.636 --> 0:23:53.156 It takes all the just the perfect environment to make 0:23:53.196 --> 0:23:56.116 it grow and to make it thrive. And they're up 0:23:56.156 --> 0:24:00.316 against a lot of challenges right now, climate change, politics. 0:24:00.716 --> 0:24:03.476 Right. You have a lovely song that I think is 0:24:03.516 --> 0:24:08.796 about growing up there called Nowhere is Where You Come From? 0:24:08.796 --> 0:24:10.036 Tell me bit about that song. 0:24:10.916 --> 0:24:15.196 Yeah, I am. Every time I go back home. It's 0:24:15.876 --> 0:24:20.276 very grounding. It always kind of resets my nervous system 0:24:20.556 --> 0:24:26.316 in a way and yeah, just talking about the things 0:24:26.356 --> 0:24:28.356 that I saw growing up was you know, a lot 0:24:28.356 --> 0:24:35.196 of crop dusting planes always going overhead and just massive fields, 0:24:35.556 --> 0:24:41.716 vast emptiness. And that song Jeremy and I started writing together, 0:24:42.036 --> 0:24:44.916 and it was taking a really long time to flush 0:24:44.956 --> 0:24:50.356 out the just kind of the tagline that if you're 0:24:50.396 --> 0:24:54.396 going nowhere, I could use a ride line, and I 0:24:54.396 --> 0:24:56.636 don't know why. I just couldn't quite get the phrasing. 0:24:56.636 --> 0:24:58.956 I couldn't figure out what I wanted it to be. 0:24:59.516 --> 0:25:02.836 There's a song that is actually a Beck song and 0:25:02.956 --> 0:25:07.636 Johnny Cash covers it and it's called row Boat, and 0:25:07.676 --> 0:25:10.396 that song's like haunted me. The lyrics of it are like, 0:25:11.316 --> 0:25:13.156 you know, pick me up in your truck, go in 0:25:13.276 --> 0:25:17.836 no place. I'll be down with the gasoline, You'll be strange, 0:25:17.836 --> 0:25:20.316 you'll be far away, And that song has just like 0:25:20.396 --> 0:25:23.396 seeped into my existence. I feel like I definitely pulled 0:25:23.436 --> 0:25:28.476 a bit from that. But Morgan Niggler, who has written 0:25:28.476 --> 0:25:31.076 a lot with Jenny Lewis and Phoebe Bridges, she came 0:25:31.116 --> 0:25:34.076 over and and really helped me get that kind of 0:25:34.116 --> 0:25:36.116 cool ending that we have on it, where it like 0:25:36.156 --> 0:25:38.956 picks up and I'm happy with how that one turned out? 0:25:38.996 --> 0:25:41.116 And so a song like that that takes you a well, 0:25:41.196 --> 0:25:42.996 how long how long will you work on a song 0:25:43.076 --> 0:25:43.276 like that? 0:25:44.756 --> 0:25:48.276 Yeah, that one was a couple months of like, you know, 0:25:48.436 --> 0:25:50.396 figure some stuff out, get to a good place, and 0:25:50.396 --> 0:25:51.956 they go back and listen to it and you're like, ah, 0:25:52.036 --> 0:25:56.076 something's still not right, and try to wrestle with it 0:25:56.116 --> 0:26:01.756 again and then set it down. And I think, how 0:26:01.756 --> 0:26:06.996 long did Leonard Cohen say he wrestled with writing Hallelulijah's 0:26:07.076 --> 0:26:08.156 times when I feel. 0:26:07.916 --> 0:26:12.196 Like three years or vias are something? And Bob Dylan 0:26:12.236 --> 0:26:13.276 told me he wrote a song in. 0:26:13.316 --> 0:26:16.316 Like two hours, write his favorite song. And I think, 0:26:16.636 --> 0:26:20.356 you know, there's sometimes it's lightning, and sometimes it takes 0:26:20.356 --> 0:26:22.916 a little bit more nuance and a little bit more 0:26:23.116 --> 0:26:26.396 attention to detail. And I really wanted to get that 0:26:26.436 --> 0:26:30.356 one right because it's so sparse, and sometimes the ones 0:26:30.356 --> 0:26:33.396 with less words are are a little bit harder to write. 0:26:35.156 --> 0:26:37.956 Now, Leonard Cohen was the writer who he had these 0:26:37.996 --> 0:26:40.916 notebooks and he would write dozens and dozens of verses 0:26:40.996 --> 0:26:43.436 and then whittle them down. Are you that kind of writer? 0:26:43.556 --> 0:26:46.636 Do you write a lot and then squeeze it in? 0:26:46.956 --> 0:26:53.316 Or I go through phases phases of like being very prolific, 0:26:53.436 --> 0:26:57.076 and then phases of drought where I'm working on other things. 0:26:57.756 --> 0:27:01.436 I've been writing another book, so I go in between 0:27:01.476 --> 0:27:06.916 those mediums, and you know, sometimes I've I've got seven 0:27:07.036 --> 0:27:10.236 or eight like frames of songs working at a time, 0:27:10.716 --> 0:27:13.556 and then I won't show them to anybody for a 0:27:13.556 --> 0:27:15.316 long time, and then I'll finally, you know, sit down 0:27:15.356 --> 0:27:17.756 with usually Jeremy, it's what do you think about these? 0:27:18.476 --> 0:27:20.596 But yeah, I think it just kind of depends on 0:27:20.636 --> 0:27:23.996 the on the season of where I'm at, But I 0:27:24.036 --> 0:27:28.316 definitely have Sylvia Plath always talked about how she felt 0:27:28.356 --> 0:27:30.276 like her work was never good enough. She just had 0:27:30.636 --> 0:27:33.556 little fragments of things, like you know, she was comparing 0:27:33.556 --> 0:27:36.076 it to furniture, like oh, I've got this little chair 0:27:36.156 --> 0:27:39.076 over here, and I've got a couch over here. Like 0:27:39.156 --> 0:27:42.156 building the album is like building a whole house. So 0:27:43.196 --> 0:27:45.996 it's good to have all those fragments lying around. 0:27:47.076 --> 0:27:49.476 Is there always an an aha moment with a song 0:27:49.516 --> 0:27:51.316 where you go, Okay, it's now it's working. 0:27:51.916 --> 0:27:54.676 I think, so yeah, there's a I love when it 0:27:54.756 --> 0:27:58.876 kind of unlocks itself. Usually I think that's when you 0:27:59.036 --> 0:28:02.076 don't need to refer back to the demo to remember it. 0:28:02.676 --> 0:28:05.316 Oh interesting, you've got it in your head all day 0:28:05.876 --> 0:28:08.836 and you just you get a new song high when 0:28:08.876 --> 0:28:12.836 you know you're like sitting on something good. I think 0:28:12.876 --> 0:28:17.956 the intro to hard Headed Women, there's some lines in 0:28:18.036 --> 0:28:20.636 there that I had been kicking around in other songs 0:28:21.116 --> 0:28:25.036 for a long time, like the I've been High as 0:28:25.076 --> 0:28:28.036 Heaven and Stubborn as Hell. That's in like three different 0:28:28.076 --> 0:28:31.836 songs I wrote along the way. We did these sessions 0:28:31.876 --> 0:28:36.196 out at Rancho de la Luna back in twenty twenty 0:28:36.196 --> 0:28:41.636 three maybe early twenty twenty four, and got a song 0:28:41.676 --> 0:28:44.356 called always Leaving that I wrote with Morgan Nigeler and 0:28:44.436 --> 0:28:49.636 Jonathan Wilson, and a few other songs that were good songs, 0:28:49.916 --> 0:28:52.636 I just felt like they didn't fit with this project 0:28:52.956 --> 0:28:54.596 or like, and so then I was like, well, I 0:28:54.636 --> 0:28:58.876 can scavenge from the bones the good lines and put 0:28:58.876 --> 0:29:01.996 them in what I'm working on now. I'm only ripping 0:29:01.996 --> 0:29:02.636 off myself. 0:29:04.636 --> 0:29:07.476 You mentioned Leonard Cohen because he did live in Nashville 0:29:07.636 --> 0:29:08.196 for a while. 0:29:08.476 --> 0:29:09.796 I didn't know that he. 0:29:09.676 --> 0:29:13.996 Lived in Nashville, And one thing he said was that 0:29:14.676 --> 0:29:17.396 living in Nashville, listening to country music. It gave his 0:29:17.436 --> 0:29:20.236 songs a better narrative sense that they were it just 0:29:20.316 --> 0:29:22.916 wasn't this first and then this verse, but that it 0:29:22.956 --> 0:29:27.196 had some momentum going through. And I thought of that 0:29:27.316 --> 0:29:30.556 a couple times when in this album, when you were 0:29:30.796 --> 0:29:37.036 writing Red Eye Flight, which just sounds like I'm finally 0:29:37.036 --> 0:29:39.996 sick of you, I'm leaving. But then there's the line 0:29:41.396 --> 0:29:44.516 about actually being the love of your life, which sort 0:29:44.556 --> 0:29:47.196 of is a little unexpected and kind of it gives 0:29:47.236 --> 0:29:50.876 the song a lot more narrative strength because that doesn't 0:29:50.876 --> 0:29:52.916 come right off the top. It's not you're the love 0:29:52.956 --> 0:29:54.076 of my life now I'm leaving. 0:29:54.716 --> 0:29:58.916 Yeah, that song was when I first started writing it, 0:29:58.916 --> 0:30:02.116 it was kind of directed it a group of people, 0:30:02.276 --> 0:30:05.716 and Rotting told me I needed to narrow it down 0:30:05.756 --> 0:30:09.516 and put my finger at one person. Oh, I thought 0:30:09.556 --> 0:30:12.516 was great, and it definitely you know, my husband Can 0:30:13.196 --> 0:30:15.916 has at times had to be my punching bag on 0:30:16.196 --> 0:30:18.676 stage and I'll sing mean lines at him, you know, 0:30:18.876 --> 0:30:24.276 just for effect. But that one is a bit about 0:30:24.276 --> 0:30:28.956 our relationship, and it was also about my previous bandmates too, 0:30:29.596 --> 0:30:33.316 And it's really hard to to write a song and 0:30:33.436 --> 0:30:36.156 be mad at like six people all at once. 0:30:36.836 --> 0:30:38.156 It's easier to be mad at one. 0:30:38.236 --> 0:30:41.876 Easier just narrowed down to one. But yeah, I was 0:30:41.916 --> 0:30:44.116 coming from a yeah, larger place. 0:30:44.516 --> 0:30:45.836 Can you write when you're angry? 0:30:47.196 --> 0:30:50.956 Oh not when I'm like an eleven, not when I'm 0:30:50.996 --> 0:30:54.956 that mad. But it is a good tool for me 0:30:55.756 --> 0:31:00.276 to process emotions. And I do feel anger very strongly sometimes, 0:31:00.316 --> 0:31:03.516 So yeah, I can write when I'm angry, just not 0:31:03.756 --> 0:31:04.916 at like the boiling point. 0:31:05.316 --> 0:31:06.796 Does that lead to good songs? Do you think? 0:31:08.476 --> 0:31:10.876 I think so? I like the finger pointing songs. I 0:31:10.996 --> 0:31:14.356 like angry songs. I think like this town gets around 0:31:14.436 --> 0:31:18.156 from my you know, my first record, and even like 0:31:18.196 --> 0:31:21.116 don't let the bastards get you down, I would say 0:31:21.516 --> 0:31:26.916 angry it's angry at people. And sometimes you can't tell 0:31:27.076 --> 0:31:29.756 the people that you're mad at that it's about them. 0:31:30.276 --> 0:31:33.316 But yeah, it's a great way to just move through 0:31:33.356 --> 0:31:35.556 the emotion and just now you've felt it, now you 0:31:35.596 --> 0:31:37.716 get a move on. It's like writing the letter that 0:31:37.756 --> 0:31:38.476 you never send. 0:31:39.196 --> 0:31:43.076 M So, when you were growing up, when did when 0:31:43.076 --> 0:31:46.476 did music enter your life? When you were growing up. 0:31:48.036 --> 0:31:50.116 I was always listening to the radio growing up. I 0:31:50.156 --> 0:31:53.436 was always my parents always had a stereo system with 0:31:53.476 --> 0:31:58.236 like the record player and the console the too yours, Yeah, 0:31:58.276 --> 0:32:01.036 and we had it in the summers. We would pull 0:32:01.076 --> 0:32:05.996 the speakers outside and just always had music on. I 0:32:06.036 --> 0:32:09.556 think I probably started writing some of my first like 0:32:09.636 --> 0:32:11.956 songs and poems. I was very young, I don't know, 0:32:12.076 --> 0:32:15.636 like six seven eight. I would just hit record and 0:32:15.636 --> 0:32:17.596 play on a tape recorder and I would just sing 0:32:17.636 --> 0:32:23.676 things a cappella with no accompaniment. I started piano lessons 0:32:24.076 --> 0:32:27.196 probably around that age as well, maybe like seven eight, 0:32:27.996 --> 0:32:31.876 and I was learning, you know whatever my piano teacher 0:32:32.076 --> 0:32:35.076 wanted me to learn. But when I got the guitar, 0:32:36.076 --> 0:32:38.076 that was really when it picked up. And that was 0:32:38.236 --> 0:32:44.196 like twelve thirteen. Right around that time I started playing 0:32:44.236 --> 0:32:48.436 the guitar and really getting serious about the songwriting. 0:32:48.756 --> 0:32:51.156 And was there a moment that you said, maybe this 0:32:51.316 --> 0:32:53.236 is my life, Maybe this is what I'm gonna do. 0:32:54.716 --> 0:33:01.716 I vividly remember the guidance counselor coming into classroom in 0:33:01.756 --> 0:33:06.076 elementary school and passing everybody a sheet and you had 0:33:06.076 --> 0:33:08.116 to write down, you know what you wanted to be 0:33:08.156 --> 0:33:10.956 for career day. You could leave school on this day 0:33:11.076 --> 0:33:14.116 and go work at whatever trade you chose. And I 0:33:14.116 --> 0:33:18.276 think I wrote down like Broadway actress or you know, 0:33:18.516 --> 0:33:23.756 singer something and missus erdman. She said, no, that's that's 0:33:23.836 --> 0:33:27.116 not a job that you can choose. And I went 0:33:27.196 --> 0:33:29.156 home and I was pretty crushed, you know. I told 0:33:29.156 --> 0:33:32.036 my mom, like, wow, she said, I can't do this. 0:33:32.316 --> 0:33:34.316 And so my mother fought really hard for me to 0:33:34.476 --> 0:33:38.556 go to this theater in the Quad Cities near where 0:33:38.556 --> 0:33:42.916 we lived, somewhere in like brock Island, Illinois, and I 0:33:42.956 --> 0:33:47.316 got to go shadow some actress that was working in 0:33:47.316 --> 0:33:47.676 the theater. 0:33:48.716 --> 0:33:51.196 That's an amazing story. Yeah, good your mom. 0:33:51.356 --> 0:33:53.716 Yeah, she was like, well, absolutely, you can do that 0:33:53.756 --> 0:33:56.036 if you want to. That's of course it's a job. 0:33:56.796 --> 0:34:00.876 But then when college started rolling around, everybody was like, well, 0:34:00.876 --> 0:34:02.956 but you got to go to college. You know, my 0:34:03.476 --> 0:34:06.356 father didn't have the luxury of going to college, and 0:34:06.556 --> 0:34:07.836 they were like, we're going to pay for it, and 0:34:07.876 --> 0:34:11.476 you're going to go. And so off I went to 0:34:11.876 --> 0:34:17.676 NIU Northern Illinois University, and after a couple of years 0:34:17.716 --> 0:34:21.956 of just being bored, not showing up to the classes, 0:34:21.996 --> 0:34:27.956 and drinking too much, had a psychedelic mushroom trip and 0:34:28.836 --> 0:34:31.636 I just decided that I wanted to be a musician. 0:34:32.036 --> 0:34:36.116 That was at twenty and I dropped out of school 0:34:36.836 --> 0:34:40.036 after my sophomore year and moved to Nashville. 0:34:40.716 --> 0:34:43.116 And who are your influences at that point when you were. 0:34:42.996 --> 0:34:50.956 Writing loosen To Williams, Gillian Walsh, Fiona Apple, Like I 0:34:50.996 --> 0:34:54.556 already said Leonard Cohen, I've already mentioned Bob Dylan, Joan Bias. 0:34:54.756 --> 0:34:57.516 I think every woman that picks up a guitar wants 0:34:57.556 --> 0:34:58.676 to be Joan Bias. 0:34:59.036 --> 0:34:59.596 Is that right? 0:34:59.676 --> 0:35:02.076 At least that's how I feel. That's Emmy Lou Harris 0:35:02.116 --> 0:35:04.316 told me that too. She said that's that Joan was 0:35:04.356 --> 0:35:05.636 the reason she picked up a guitar. 0:35:06.756 --> 0:35:07.196 I liked. 0:35:07.676 --> 0:35:10.316 I liked Jules first rec. I loved Pieces of You 0:35:10.636 --> 0:35:13.116 when that came out. I just thought that was one 0:35:13.116 --> 0:35:14.956 of the first songs that I that I learned how 0:35:14.956 --> 0:35:16.916 to play on the guitar was Pieces of You. And 0:35:16.996 --> 0:35:20.396 I sang it at a county fair. I was in 0:35:20.436 --> 0:35:22.716 sixth grade and I won first place. 0:35:23.276 --> 0:35:27.036 Good for you. That was also that was a good 0:35:27.036 --> 0:35:30.036 time for women's music. It was really much all over 0:35:30.076 --> 0:35:30.556 the radio. 0:35:31.116 --> 0:35:34.196 Absolutely. I mean I loved Alanis Morissett too, Like there 0:35:34.276 --> 0:35:38.436 was so many people, I mean in Fiona Apple as well. 0:35:38.516 --> 0:35:42.796 I just I was obsessed with Fiona Apple. Every record 0:35:42.796 --> 0:35:45.036 that she put out, I mean, go pick it up. 0:35:45.076 --> 0:35:49.116 And I'm so glad I had them to look up to. 0:35:49.196 --> 0:35:50.956 And that's what I think the real problem is with 0:35:51.156 --> 0:35:55.396 country music today is that there are an incredible amount 0:35:55.956 --> 0:35:58.916 of women in country music right now. They're writing the 0:35:58.956 --> 0:36:02.556 best songs, they're making the best records, but it seems 0:36:02.556 --> 0:36:05.316 they always just get one that is kind of let 0:36:05.356 --> 0:36:07.556 in to the room and to be on the radio, 0:36:07.916 --> 0:36:10.196 and then the rest of us have to kind of 0:36:10.196 --> 0:36:11.156 fend for ourselves. 0:36:11.476 --> 0:36:13.516 I know, there's no question all the best writers now 0:36:13.516 --> 0:36:17.916 are women and country music absolutely, We've interviewed lots of them. Yeah, 0:36:18.156 --> 0:36:20.196 Mary Goche now, she's love. 0:36:20.276 --> 0:36:22.516 Mary Gachet actually did a writing session with her not 0:36:22.516 --> 0:36:27.116 too long. How was that amazing? She's her and I 0:36:27.196 --> 0:36:29.196 have a lot in common and had a lot to 0:36:29.196 --> 0:36:31.876 talk about, so I think we talked for nearly two 0:36:31.876 --> 0:36:34.836 hours before we picked up the guitars and started writing. 0:36:34.876 --> 0:36:38.596 But she really puts herself into her songs, and she's 0:36:39.516 --> 0:36:43.276 not afraid to, you know, the self deprecation or the 0:36:43.356 --> 0:36:47.156 vulnerability that I think it takes to really write something 0:36:47.196 --> 0:36:51.036 that breaks your heart and hopefully breaks the person's heart 0:36:51.076 --> 0:36:51.636 listening to it. 0:36:51.916 --> 0:36:54.756 Well, her album The Foundling about being Adopted is just 0:36:54.796 --> 0:36:57.756 an amazing I have a friend who is adopted and 0:36:58.596 --> 0:37:00.556 struggles with it in a way, and it wasn't until 0:37:00.556 --> 0:37:03.156 I heard her album I really kind of understood his 0:37:04.316 --> 0:37:05.036 those feelings. 0:37:05.276 --> 0:37:07.556 I think Gillia Wels does such a great job too 0:37:07.596 --> 0:37:11.556 of kind of sharing her experience as you know, like 0:37:11.636 --> 0:37:14.196 an I'm sure you feel like an orphan your whole life. 0:37:14.396 --> 0:37:16.756 My husband as well, he was adopted. He's got a 0:37:16.796 --> 0:37:20.076 great song called Orphan Child. Yeah, it's a lot to 0:37:20.076 --> 0:37:22.956 process when you grow up and you don't know who 0:37:23.036 --> 0:37:23.676 your family is. 0:37:24.596 --> 0:37:27.156 It is interesting that when you grew up there was 0:37:27.676 --> 0:37:30.956 in almost every kind of music like that's when Hole 0:37:31.116 --> 0:37:35.236 was big, and in alternative music it was Liz Fair 0:37:35.556 --> 0:37:37.356 was like totally everything. 0:37:37.636 --> 0:37:40.356 Yeah, I mean Lilith Fair was huge, you know, I 0:37:40.356 --> 0:37:43.716 think it was. It felt like a very liberating time 0:37:43.756 --> 0:37:47.116 to be a woman, and but then you had what 0:37:47.196 --> 0:37:51.916 would stock to happen, like, Okay, maybe we're not as 0:37:51.916 --> 0:37:58.276 far as we think, and obviously now just going backwards. Yeah, Unfortunately, one. 0:37:58.156 --> 0:38:01.476 Of the influences you talked about in your book really 0:38:01.476 --> 0:38:06.236 surprised me. It was the Kinks really Well, it's not 0:38:06.276 --> 0:38:08.796 that I don't love the Kinks, I do, but but 0:38:08.836 --> 0:38:14.076 there's so sort of arch and English and class obsessed. 0:38:14.556 --> 0:38:16.916 What was it about the Kinks that you loved so much? 0:38:17.156 --> 0:38:18.636 I think it was all the things you just said. 0:38:18.796 --> 0:38:22.476 I loved that they were class obsessed. I loved that 0:38:23.436 --> 0:38:28.076 they made albums that were about things other than love 0:38:28.876 --> 0:38:32.516 and I you know, they're the underdogs of the brit 0:38:32.596 --> 0:38:37.876 rock scene. They they didn't have the opportunities that the 0:38:37.956 --> 0:38:42.236 Rolling Stones or the Beatles did, and I think that's 0:38:42.276 --> 0:38:45.276 one of the reasons why I really gravitated towards them. 0:38:45.716 --> 0:38:49.436 Dead End Street, all those songs like we Lived in 0:38:49.476 --> 0:38:56.396 those albums, Lola Versus Powermanned Money go Round, talking about 0:38:56.476 --> 0:38:59.036 you know, like where all the money's going when you 0:38:59.036 --> 0:39:03.516 get signed, and stuff like that. Like that has absolutely 0:39:03.836 --> 0:39:05.796 still seeped into who I am. And I think even 0:39:05.836 --> 0:39:08.516 that first record, Midwest Farmer's Daughter, I was talking about 0:39:09.116 --> 0:39:12.356 some of those things. I've got to see Ray when 0:39:12.396 --> 0:39:15.076 he played in Nashville, and he did a record in 0:39:15.156 --> 0:39:17.796 Nashville with one of my friends, and I was trying 0:39:17.836 --> 0:39:21.196 so hard to get in there and meet him. This 0:39:21.356 --> 0:39:26.716 was like seventeen years ago or something and Muswell Hillbillies, 0:39:27.036 --> 0:39:30.436 like they were so obsessed with like Southern culture, you know, 0:39:30.516 --> 0:39:33.996 even during that album cycle. And it's really cool to 0:39:34.076 --> 0:39:37.676 hear how that kind of echo chamber goes back where 0:39:37.716 --> 0:39:41.956 it's like we're influencing brit Rock and they're influencing us, 0:39:41.996 --> 0:39:44.076 and it just I love it. 0:39:44.436 --> 0:39:46.676 And I mean the song Waterloo Sunset probably one of 0:39:46.716 --> 0:39:48.356 the greatest songs. 0:39:47.956 --> 0:39:52.836 So good and like Strangers, that song destroys me. 0:39:53.396 --> 0:39:56.956 Yeah. Yeah, there's a good song on this album. I 0:39:57.036 --> 0:40:01.036 think that about that period in your life called Losing Streak. Yeah, 0:40:01.076 --> 0:40:01.916 so tell me about that. 0:40:03.076 --> 0:40:11.676 Yes, that song is a pretty exact story of what 0:40:11.836 --> 0:40:14.796 was going on in those days and in my twenties. 0:40:14.836 --> 0:40:20.236 And I loved being homeless. I loved having that struggle 0:40:20.476 --> 0:40:22.356 of like, oh, okay, I'm going to have to sleep 0:40:22.916 --> 0:40:26.596 in my car at the state park. I don't know. 0:40:26.636 --> 0:40:28.276 It was just really whatever I had to do to 0:40:28.276 --> 0:40:30.596 not move back in with my parents and bruise my 0:40:30.636 --> 0:40:33.756 pride and let them know it really wasn't working out 0:40:33.796 --> 0:40:34.236 so great. 0:40:34.876 --> 0:40:37.116 Did you faith that whole time that it would work at. 0:40:39.476 --> 0:40:39.556 No? 0:40:41.116 --> 0:40:43.636 Really what kept you going because most people would have 0:40:43.676 --> 0:40:44.756 dropped out by that point. 0:40:45.596 --> 0:40:47.956 Even now, and even if all you know, if Jack 0:40:47.996 --> 0:40:50.676 White had not scooped me up out of my obscurity, 0:40:51.236 --> 0:40:54.116 I would like to think I would still be writing 0:40:54.156 --> 0:40:56.956 songs and playing songs and making music. I mean, I 0:40:57.916 --> 0:41:01.196 might still have to have like a straight job, but 0:41:02.076 --> 0:41:04.356 it's just such a huge part of my identity, and 0:41:04.476 --> 0:41:07.556 like I said, it's my emotional processing and everything kind 0:41:07.596 --> 0:41:10.036 of goes through that. Done a lot of work with 0:41:10.076 --> 0:41:12.996 my therapist to kind of figure out where like musician 0:41:13.076 --> 0:41:18.036 Margo ends and the other one begins, because it's it's 0:41:18.116 --> 0:41:22.436 just very deeply wrapped up in who I am. 0:41:23.316 --> 0:41:25.716 Don't do too much therapy on that. You want to 0:41:26.596 --> 0:41:28.236 you want to keep the creative juices flowing. 0:41:28.276 --> 0:41:30.956 And she moved to Kansas City, so I hadn't been. 0:41:30.836 --> 0:41:34.236 Thank god, thank god, you won't be cured. That's the 0:41:34.316 --> 0:41:35.036 important thing. 0:41:35.756 --> 0:41:37.716 Oh there's not a chance for that. I don't think 0:41:37.716 --> 0:41:39.356 I have the funds. 0:41:40.676 --> 0:41:42.916 Well, last break, and we're back with Margo Price. 0:41:48.516 --> 0:41:51.116 You tell a funny story about I think a great 0:41:51.196 --> 0:41:55.476 uncle you had who was a songwriter, and I think 0:41:55.476 --> 0:41:56.996 a pretty successful one, wasn't he. 0:41:57.036 --> 0:42:01.356 For absolutely, he's still in Nashville. He's still sharp as attack. 0:42:01.476 --> 0:42:03.036 I just went over and wrote a song with him 0:42:03.076 --> 0:42:06.156 a couple months ago. Really that turned out beautifully and 0:42:06.156 --> 0:42:09.876 I'm definitely going to record it. His name's Bobby Fisher, 0:42:10.636 --> 0:42:16.236 and he moved to Nashville in his early forties, left 0:42:16.276 --> 0:42:19.316 his job. Him and his wife moved down there and 0:42:19.356 --> 0:42:22.196 she kind of supported him as a nurse until he 0:42:22.916 --> 0:42:26.036 got his foot in the door. But he hung out 0:42:26.076 --> 0:42:29.476 at Tootsi's with all the degenerates and you know, hung 0:42:29.516 --> 0:42:33.116 out with Roger Miller and ended up getting you know, 0:42:33.436 --> 0:42:38.356 George Jones Cuts and Tanny Tucker and Charlie Pride and 0:42:39.396 --> 0:42:43.516 just the list goes on. It's it's really impressive. But 0:42:43.596 --> 0:42:47.356 when I moved to Nashville, I think that my mom 0:42:47.516 --> 0:42:51.436 and my family kind of everybody thought like, oh, maybe 0:42:51.556 --> 0:42:55.276 maybe uncle Bob will plug you in, get you in 0:42:55.316 --> 0:42:58.156 the studio and get you an album deal. And so 0:42:58.196 --> 0:43:01.436 I went over to his home and I, you know, 0:43:01.476 --> 0:43:03.116 i'd only really met him like a few times in 0:43:03.156 --> 0:43:06.196 my life when we passed through Nashville on vacation. But 0:43:07.396 --> 0:43:11.796 played him some songs and he sat there and listened, 0:43:11.876 --> 0:43:16.276 and when I finished, he said, well, you know what 0:43:16.316 --> 0:43:20.236 you need to do, don't you? I said, no, what 0:43:20.636 --> 0:43:21.916 do I need to do? And he said, well, you 0:43:21.956 --> 0:43:24.196 need to need to get rid of your TV, you 0:43:24.236 --> 0:43:26.316 need to get rid of your computer, and you need 0:43:26.356 --> 0:43:29.596 to just you just really need to sit in your 0:43:29.596 --> 0:43:32.156 apartment and just write and just keep writing and just 0:43:32.196 --> 0:43:38.356 don't stop writing because you're not there yet. And that hurt, 0:43:38.636 --> 0:43:40.956 as you know, as a twenty year old who just 0:43:40.996 --> 0:43:45.116 thought that I was already great, it really really hurt. 0:43:45.476 --> 0:43:49.196 But it was exactly the tough love that I needed. 0:43:50.356 --> 0:43:51.636 And did you take his advice? 0:43:51.876 --> 0:43:54.276 I did? I did. I started going out to like 0:43:55.396 --> 0:44:00.156 every writer's round in Nashville and would go, you know, 0:44:00.196 --> 0:44:01.516 sign up on the list. 0:44:01.356 --> 0:44:04.676 And explained to people what the writer's rounds are. 0:44:04.876 --> 0:44:07.676 Yeah, writers round is like usually they're in a bar 0:44:08.236 --> 0:44:10.956 or like a little list room or a club, and 0:44:11.196 --> 0:44:14.516 it'd be like, oh, you know Wednesday nights like New 0:44:14.516 --> 0:44:16.556 Faces Night or whatever, so you can come out and 0:44:16.596 --> 0:44:18.356 you got to get there early, so you got to 0:44:18.356 --> 0:44:20.236 sign up on the list, just kind of like karaoke, 0:44:20.436 --> 0:44:22.196 but you know, you bring your own guitar and you 0:44:22.236 --> 0:44:26.076 bring your own songs. And there was this place that 0:44:26.116 --> 0:44:28.876 we went we started frequenting. It was called the Hall 0:44:28.916 --> 0:44:31.316 of Fame Lounge, and it was in a Best Western 0:44:31.716 --> 0:44:35.036 right down on Music Row. The inside was decorated like 0:44:35.756 --> 0:44:38.276 cracker barrel or something. It just had like all these 0:44:38.556 --> 0:44:42.396 chotchkeys and knickknacks and antlers and things up on the wall. 0:44:43.076 --> 0:44:47.476 And everybody there that was playing was like forty to 0:44:47.716 --> 0:44:51.276 seventy years old, and I was twenty. I don't even 0:44:51.316 --> 0:44:54.676 think I could drink at the time, but I would 0:44:54.756 --> 0:44:56.076 hang out there and I would hang out with all 0:44:56.116 --> 0:44:58.076 those old people, and they would buy me beers and 0:44:58.716 --> 0:45:00.916 I would just sit and study. Like what it was 0:45:00.956 --> 0:45:03.396 the audience reaction to, you know, somebody who finished a 0:45:03.436 --> 0:45:06.516 song or say a line. It was like, what makes 0:45:06.556 --> 0:45:10.556 the song good? What makes it memorable? And that was 0:45:10.596 --> 0:45:14.036 in lieu of like going to Belmont University and getting 0:45:14.396 --> 0:45:17.316 a degree in music, or you know, going to Berkeley. 0:45:18.076 --> 0:45:21.156 I just cut my teeth around town. 0:45:21.156 --> 0:45:22.396 At the Best Western, at. 0:45:22.316 --> 0:45:23.956 The Best Western Hall of Fame Lounge. 0:45:24.236 --> 0:45:26.156 Mm hmm. You said at the time you were writing 0:45:26.156 --> 0:45:32.156 a lot of minor chords. Sylvia Plath lyrics on this album. 0:45:32.516 --> 0:45:35.956 You mentioned in some of the publicity stuff you said, 0:45:36.116 --> 0:45:37.676 I want to do a one, four or five song. 0:45:37.796 --> 0:45:41.956 I want to go back to that very basic sound. 0:45:42.836 --> 0:45:46.156 Tell me about what you were thinking when you said that. 0:45:47.476 --> 0:45:50.796 Yeah, the three chords in the truth, you know, cliche 0:45:51.036 --> 0:45:55.196 that you find it's so true. Sometimes sometimes you only 0:45:55.236 --> 0:45:57.836 need one chord. If you've got a melody and a hook, 0:45:57.876 --> 0:46:02.716 that's good enough. I think my husband, he can be 0:46:02.796 --> 0:46:05.716 quite cordy with things that he does. He's just got 0:46:05.756 --> 0:46:10.436 an incredible knowledge of, you know, how the guitar works. 0:46:10.476 --> 0:46:15.356 And I find that so many of the songs that 0:46:15.756 --> 0:46:18.196 I've kept in my catalog and the things that I 0:46:18.236 --> 0:46:21.756 play on stage that are older, a lot of times 0:46:21.796 --> 0:46:24.076 they are just the just a one four or five, 0:46:25.116 --> 0:46:28.636 and you know, you don't have to reinvent the wheel 0:46:28.756 --> 0:46:32.756 or like make something that has never been done before. 0:46:33.036 --> 0:46:37.116 I think building off of tradition and going back to 0:46:37.196 --> 0:46:43.116 these prolific songwriters like Christofferson, who definitely pulled from his 0:46:43.956 --> 0:46:47.316 vernacular on like Losing Streak. But it's a very I mean, 0:46:47.356 --> 0:46:50.036 those chords are they're one four or five. There's there's 0:46:50.116 --> 0:46:52.156 no magic tricks going on there. 0:46:52.716 --> 0:46:54.716 Although the magic trick is that it is a one 0:46:54.796 --> 0:46:57.516 four five, isn't it? That always amazes me. Sometimes I'll 0:46:57.556 --> 0:47:00.316 hear songs and I'll think, I wonder what that progression is, 0:47:00.356 --> 0:47:02.556 and I'm like, oh, it's a one four. 0:47:02.556 --> 0:47:06.476 Five less can really be more? Yeah times Yeah, but. 0:47:06.436 --> 0:47:09.596 It can sound so different and it's it's it's sort 0:47:09.596 --> 0:47:10.236 of disarming. 0:47:10.516 --> 0:47:14.596 Yeah. Yeah. I mean I do love, you know, doing 0:47:14.636 --> 0:47:19.356 a key change, having like a lift that happens so 0:47:19.436 --> 0:47:23.316 subtly you don't quite notice. Like on I just don't 0:47:23.316 --> 0:47:26.276 give a damn that last chorus moves up. 0:47:26.636 --> 0:47:30.476 Yeah, you've got a modulation, yeah. 0:47:29.396 --> 0:47:32.676 Or even like kissing you goodbye. I think we added 0:47:32.916 --> 0:47:38.396 a really fun chord. Sometimes I don't know chord names, 0:47:38.396 --> 0:47:41.916 but I know how to play him like a kissing 0:47:42.436 --> 0:47:45.076 you good but I like, I don't know if the 0:47:45.116 --> 0:47:49.676 original had this in there, but it just adds passing chord, 0:47:49.476 --> 0:47:51.156 a nice little passing chord. 0:47:51.276 --> 0:47:51.876 Yeah. 0:47:51.996 --> 0:47:55.196 Yeah, So your husband is the he's the coord nerd. 0:47:55.676 --> 0:47:57.276 He is a little bit more of a chord nerd. 0:47:57.316 --> 0:47:58.996 And I mean, you know, I know my circle of 0:47:58.996 --> 0:48:01.636 fifths and I there's definitely been times where I've been 0:48:01.676 --> 0:48:06.356 able to kind of break through something that's never been done, 0:48:06.396 --> 0:48:11.796 Like Hands of Time is an A but the chorus 0:48:12.716 --> 0:48:16.236 goes down and modulates down to G and when I 0:48:16.276 --> 0:48:18.436 initially wrote that song. My husband said, I don't think 0:48:18.476 --> 0:48:21.396 that works. That doesn't sound right, but it gives the 0:48:21.396 --> 0:48:24.436 illusion that you're that the key is being moved up 0:48:24.516 --> 0:48:28.276 because I'm jumping up into like my belting voice, but 0:48:28.316 --> 0:48:33.916 I'm actually moduling down. Yeah, I love it. 0:48:33.916 --> 0:48:35.876 It was such a great trick, isn't it when when 0:48:35.916 --> 0:48:39.356 you think it's going up, but it's going down. Yeah. 0:48:39.396 --> 0:48:42.476 It's like a little counterpoint with chords. You said in 0:48:42.516 --> 0:48:45.556 your book, that was the first the first time you 0:48:45.596 --> 0:48:46.956 said okay, now that's a song. 0:48:47.676 --> 0:48:49.116 Yeah. 0:48:49.276 --> 0:48:51.716 And I really wasn't writing it for anybody but myself. 0:48:52.036 --> 0:48:54.476 It was really just like I didn't have a therapist 0:48:54.476 --> 0:48:58.436 back then, and I needed to get some things off 0:48:58.436 --> 0:49:03.396 my chest. And there's a lot of subliminal lines in 0:49:03.436 --> 0:49:07.076 there that you know, I say, like the men they 0:49:07.076 --> 0:49:10.676 brought me problems and the drinking brought me grief. I 0:49:10.716 --> 0:49:14.196 don't exactly go into exactly what my men troubles are, 0:49:15.276 --> 0:49:18.516 but it was, you know, just every line of that song, 0:49:18.676 --> 0:49:21.716 it was it was therapy, and it was finally me 0:49:23.316 --> 0:49:27.276 just saying like, okay, I'm I'm a loser musician. Nothing's 0:49:27.316 --> 0:49:30.236 happened for me, and this is where I'm at and 0:49:30.676 --> 0:49:31.476 people loved it. 0:49:33.076 --> 0:49:35.596 Were you conscious of those thoughts when you were writing it? 0:49:35.676 --> 0:49:38.356 Or is that something you looked back later and said 0:49:38.556 --> 0:49:39.436 that must have been what. 0:49:39.396 --> 0:49:45.316 I was feeling conscious of, like being self degrading, or like. 0:49:45.596 --> 0:49:48.276 Yeah, what you just said, like here's a song about 0:49:48.276 --> 0:49:49.556 me is the loser musician? 0:49:50.436 --> 0:49:52.596 I think I really had just reached a breaking point. 0:49:52.756 --> 0:49:55.796 I remember so many times we would go on tour 0:49:56.556 --> 0:49:58.956 with my band Buffalo Clover, and we'd you know, set 0:49:59.036 --> 0:50:01.916 up a little weekend run and we come back, we 0:50:02.036 --> 0:50:04.756 hanging out in the bar and you're, you know, your 0:50:04.756 --> 0:50:06.676 friends ask you like, how is the run? How are 0:50:06.716 --> 0:50:09.756 the shows? How's the turnout? Oh? It was right, you know, 0:50:09.836 --> 0:50:13.276 you just lie through your teeth. Oh yeah. Everybody loved it. 0:50:14.356 --> 0:50:16.556 And then kind of at a certain point it was 0:50:16.636 --> 0:50:19.996 just like, man, this is this is not going the 0:50:19.996 --> 0:50:21.796 way that I wanted to. And it just felt like 0:50:21.836 --> 0:50:24.516 I just took off a heavy coat and was like, 0:50:26.116 --> 0:50:28.316 all right, this is who I am, this is where 0:50:28.356 --> 0:50:32.236 I'm at now, and not be afraid to look at 0:50:32.236 --> 0:50:33.116 myself in the mirror. 0:50:33.916 --> 0:50:36.236 Interesting, you had no money back then, This is what 0:50:36.316 --> 0:50:39.316 fascinated me. But you were determined that you were going 0:50:39.316 --> 0:50:43.556 to record your first album at Sun Records, and you 0:50:43.596 --> 0:50:45.556 managed to do it. I don't know how you knew 0:50:45.556 --> 0:50:48.876 somebody who could pick a lock or something. I don't 0:50:48.916 --> 0:50:51.636 know how you did that. Now this album, tell me 0:50:51.636 --> 0:50:52.756 about the recording of it. 0:50:53.276 --> 0:50:56.996 Yeah, well, yeah, the first album, we pawned a car, 0:50:57.556 --> 0:51:00.436 ponned a bunch of stuff so we could go in there. 0:51:00.716 --> 0:51:03.236 And it was luck that we got to do it 0:51:03.316 --> 0:51:07.236 because I ended up some of the money from the 0:51:07.396 --> 0:51:10.756 pond items had disappeared, and so then I had to 0:51:10.756 --> 0:51:12.636 borrow money from a guy who owned a pizza shop 0:51:12.916 --> 0:51:14.836 to pay for the rest of it because the check 0:51:14.876 --> 0:51:19.516 to Sun bounced. Anyway, I digress this this album. 0:51:19.636 --> 0:51:21.516 You know, it was probably not the first bounced check 0:51:21.516 --> 0:51:23.836 they've ever had. Yeah, I'm guessing. 0:51:24.596 --> 0:51:29.036 I need to reach out to that guy. Yeah, this album' 0:51:29.196 --> 0:51:33.356 You know, I've never recorded a proper record in Nashville 0:51:33.876 --> 0:51:36.476 as a solo artist since taking off. I have recorded, 0:51:36.996 --> 0:51:39.116 you know, in my twenties and stuff. We recorded at 0:51:39.116 --> 0:51:44.156 studios all around Nashville with my bands. But I've recorded 0:51:44.156 --> 0:51:48.356 at RCAA in the past. And I went in to 0:51:48.476 --> 0:51:52.556 do the song with billy strings two Stone to Cry, 0:51:53.276 --> 0:51:57.116 and I just was so blown away with how it 0:51:57.196 --> 0:51:59.996 sounded in there. I mean like we were all in 0:52:00.036 --> 0:52:02.756 the room live, playing everything live, and we had some 0:52:02.876 --> 0:52:05.876 you know a couple of dividers like blocking the sound. 0:52:05.996 --> 0:52:08.076 But it was amazing because if you didn't like anything 0:52:08.116 --> 0:52:10.516 and somebody needed to, oh I hit a wrong bass 0:52:10.556 --> 0:52:13.356 note there, you could go in and just punch it. 0:52:13.396 --> 0:52:17.636 Because the way that studio is built, it's just it's perfect. 0:52:18.396 --> 0:52:22.956 And the history that's there, just all the songs, all 0:52:22.956 --> 0:52:25.076 the artists that have recorded there. It's where you know 0:52:25.196 --> 0:52:29.196 chud Atkins like Refine, the Nashville Sounds, where Willie and 0:52:29.236 --> 0:52:33.956 Whalon and Leon. You know, we're making records that defined 0:52:33.996 --> 0:52:37.916 the outlaw movement. And also just knowing that Dolly Parton 0:52:37.956 --> 0:52:40.756 recorded nine to five and Jolene there. It was all 0:52:40.796 --> 0:52:44.916 those things. I just wanted to like pick up that energy. 0:52:45.356 --> 0:52:48.476 And that was how it was when we were in 0:52:48.596 --> 0:52:50.276 Sun as well. It's like, Okay, I'm in the room 0:52:50.276 --> 0:52:52.716 where Elvis was. I'm in the room you know where 0:52:53.196 --> 0:52:57.476 Johnny Cash saying these songs. And late at night when 0:52:57.476 --> 0:53:01.956 we were working at RCAA on Hard Headed Woman, sometimes 0:53:02.036 --> 0:53:04.316 you would you would hear noises and there would be 0:53:04.356 --> 0:53:06.476 nobody else in there, And I'm not saying that it 0:53:06.516 --> 0:53:12.356 was haunted, but I'm not saying it's not haunted all 0:53:12.396 --> 0:53:16.716 those ghosts and all those prolific recordings that were made there. 0:53:16.756 --> 0:53:19.236 I just I wanted a piece of that. 0:53:20.196 --> 0:53:23.876 Does the room change how you record, how you sang? 0:53:24.356 --> 0:53:28.316 Yeah. One of the main things I think about this 0:53:28.356 --> 0:53:31.636 album is the vocals that we were able to achieve 0:53:31.796 --> 0:53:35.156 because I was just alone in this massive room doing 0:53:35.196 --> 0:53:37.636 the vocals, and we didn't have to use like an 0:53:37.636 --> 0:53:39.716 echo chamber, we didn't have to use a lot of 0:53:39.756 --> 0:53:42.956 like reverb or things in post because it just sounded 0:53:43.036 --> 0:53:46.196 great right off the bat. We spent a lot of 0:53:46.236 --> 0:53:50.436 time and a lot of money, but I don't regret it. 0:53:50.476 --> 0:53:54.116 I really in the past, I've I haven't rushed things, 0:53:54.156 --> 0:53:58.116 but I just didn't have the budget always to spend 0:53:58.236 --> 0:54:00.996 all the time on all the extra little accouterments and 0:54:01.036 --> 0:54:03.436 the minutia. And like I would go back, I would 0:54:03.436 --> 0:54:05.236 listen to mixes and say, I've got to hit that 0:54:05.316 --> 0:54:07.476 vocal again. I can do that better. I know it. 0:54:07.796 --> 0:54:11.716 And really we went and made the record last June, 0:54:12.236 --> 0:54:14.876 and then the band and I went out. We went 0:54:14.916 --> 0:54:19.076 on tour with Tedesky Trucks, and we played all these 0:54:19.156 --> 0:54:22.636 all the songs that we recorded, and during that time, 0:54:22.676 --> 0:54:24.476 I was like learning how to sing them better. 0:54:24.756 --> 0:54:24.956 You know. 0:54:25.116 --> 0:54:26.756 I think a lot of times it's like people make 0:54:26.796 --> 0:54:28.156 the record and then they go out and tour it, 0:54:28.476 --> 0:54:30.516 and then you've got all these other ideas of like, 0:54:31.076 --> 0:54:32.996 oh the melody could have actually went here and it 0:54:32.996 --> 0:54:36.236 would have been more effective. So that was really crucial. 0:54:36.596 --> 0:54:39.916 And you know, I had all these ideas, Oh, I'm 0:54:39.956 --> 0:54:44.396 going to get this record out like spring of you know, 0:54:44.996 --> 0:54:47.476 twenty twenty five. That was the goal. And now here 0:54:47.556 --> 0:54:50.596 it's like, well it's August, but this record's going to 0:54:50.636 --> 0:54:54.156 be around forever. And there's not one single thing that 0:54:54.196 --> 0:54:55.636 I would say, oh I want to go back and 0:54:55.676 --> 0:54:58.276 do that different. It's exactly the way I want it. 0:54:58.476 --> 0:55:00.356 Those are things you can do with your voice now 0:55:00.556 --> 0:55:02.276 that you couldn't do earlier in your career. 0:55:02.636 --> 0:55:06.876 Absolutely, I think being in the studio is such a 0:55:06.916 --> 0:55:13.836 different than singing live. And I've been working with a 0:55:13.916 --> 0:55:16.516 vocal coach on and off. His name is Rob Stevenson. 0:55:16.876 --> 0:55:21.476 He's just transformed the way that I think about singing 0:55:21.556 --> 0:55:24.956 and also just giving me a lot of different vocal 0:55:24.996 --> 0:55:28.436 warm ups and scales and things to do. And also 0:55:28.476 --> 0:55:32.556 I think in my early days you're kind of impersonating 0:55:32.676 --> 0:55:35.756 people the records that you've heard, other singers that you've heard. 0:55:35.796 --> 0:55:39.796 It takes a really long time to refine your sound. 0:55:39.876 --> 0:55:41.636 And of course some people just come out of the 0:55:41.636 --> 0:55:43.916 gate and you know, like Johnny Cash or something. It's 0:55:43.956 --> 0:55:47.236 like piecings Like Johnny Cash, his voice is there, everything's there. 0:55:47.276 --> 0:55:51.276 But for me, at least, it's been a long, arduous 0:55:51.316 --> 0:55:55.676 process of figuring out exactly who I am, who I 0:55:55.676 --> 0:55:56.396 want to sound like. 0:55:57.156 --> 0:55:59.596 And you've got a new band I do, and what's 0:55:59.636 --> 0:55:59.996 that like. 0:56:00.556 --> 0:56:06.876 It's amazing to have some fresh energy and just different 0:56:06.916 --> 0:56:10.836 ways of doing things. I've got some incredible singers out 0:56:10.836 --> 0:56:14.236 with me. There's this guy who sang all over the record. 0:56:14.276 --> 0:56:17.316 His name's Logan Ledger, and he's just got like a 0:56:18.276 --> 0:56:22.116 George Jones type voice where it's like he's just so gifted. 0:56:22.796 --> 0:56:26.756 And him and Rodney sang harmonies on Don't let the 0:56:26.756 --> 0:56:30.916 Bastards Get You Down and Red Eye Flight, and I 0:56:31.076 --> 0:56:33.356 just after I had him on the recordings, I just 0:56:33.436 --> 0:56:35.836 kept thinking, like, man, I've got to I've got to 0:56:35.876 --> 0:56:39.556 get him out on the road with me, and so, yeah, 0:56:39.596 --> 0:56:43.036 he's been out touring with me. I've got a fiddle player. 0:56:43.156 --> 0:56:46.116 I just I really wanted to switch up the instrumentation. 0:56:46.796 --> 0:56:48.156 It was time for a change. 0:56:49.316 --> 0:56:52.396 The fiddle opens this album. It seems like a real statement. 0:56:53.396 --> 0:56:56.916 Yeah, the intro I came intact on later. That was 0:56:56.956 --> 0:56:59.036 like one of the last things that I recorded, But 0:56:59.116 --> 0:57:02.396 I knew that it needed something. And it's crazy because 0:57:02.436 --> 0:57:03.796 it was like, first the album was going to open 0:57:03.876 --> 0:57:08.516 with losing streak and I had a sequencing is so challenging, 0:57:08.596 --> 0:57:12.636 I think, But once I had that that intro piece, 0:57:12.676 --> 0:57:15.836 it was like, all right, everything feels cohesive Now. 0:57:16.316 --> 0:57:20.676 It almost feels because of the shortage production. I hate 0:57:20.676 --> 0:57:23.796 to say concept album, but I mean a concept album 0:57:23.836 --> 0:57:25.356 in the way the Kings used to make them. 0:57:25.596 --> 0:57:29.356 Yeah, well, I mean I keep pointing back to Redheaded Stranger. 0:57:30.076 --> 0:57:32.396 I mean I almost call it hard Headed Woman. It's 0:57:32.436 --> 0:57:35.196 like the same amount of silverles got headed in the 0:57:35.196 --> 0:57:38.036 middle of it. Yeah, which is like obviously the most 0:57:38.636 --> 0:57:42.756 incredible concept record of all times. And I did want 0:57:42.756 --> 0:57:46.156 it to have a really cohesive feel where it's like, Okay, 0:57:46.236 --> 0:57:50.276 everything supposed to be exactly this way. 0:57:51.116 --> 0:57:53.156 So tell me about your choice of covers. 0:57:53.436 --> 0:58:00.476 Yes, this Waylon Jennings tune that we interpreted here was 0:58:01.556 --> 0:58:06.076 passed to me from Jesse Coulter, who was obviously married 0:58:06.116 --> 0:58:09.996 to Whylon Jennings for a good long time, and I 0:58:10.036 --> 0:58:13.076 produced a record of hers. Gosh, it's been about six 0:58:13.156 --> 0:58:17.076 years ago now, and her and I were looking through 0:58:17.076 --> 0:58:20.156 this old suitcase of Whelan's, like all these songs, just 0:58:20.796 --> 0:58:23.956 songs he'd written, songs people had given him. I was 0:58:24.436 --> 0:58:28.156 so thrilling to rifle through there. But she said, oh, 0:58:28.196 --> 0:58:30.316 I've got this song so fun. It's called get your 0:58:30.356 --> 0:58:32.356 Tongue out of my Mouth I'm kissing you goodbye. You know, 0:58:32.396 --> 0:58:34.356 it's like the line in it, and she goes, I 0:58:34.476 --> 0:58:36.756 can't do that song, I'm too old, but you should 0:58:36.796 --> 0:58:40.076 do that song. And so I've literally been thinking about 0:58:40.076 --> 0:58:43.276 covering this song and doing this song for like six 0:58:43.356 --> 0:58:46.596 or seven years. And it just has such a like 0:58:46.876 --> 0:58:49.516 Loretta Lynne type feel of like don't come home and 0:58:49.556 --> 0:58:52.636 drinking or you know, just I needed a song like that. 0:58:53.796 --> 0:58:57.036 I changed a few of the words because it was 0:58:57.036 --> 0:59:05.196 actually inspired by Waylon Jennings lawyer slash drug dealer's ex wife. 0:59:05.996 --> 0:59:09.996 So she said, you know, she was really her. Jesse 0:59:10.156 --> 0:59:13.396 was hanging out with Whylon and said drug dealer and 0:59:13.516 --> 0:59:16.156 the ex wife, and he tried to give her a 0:59:16.236 --> 0:59:17.836 kiss and she said, gets you chunge out of my mouth. 0:59:17.836 --> 0:59:21.116 I'm kissing goodbye. Whylan went wrote the song, but it's 0:59:21.156 --> 0:59:23.996 kind of more aimed at like a woman. He's cutting 0:59:23.996 --> 0:59:26.196 her down by talking about her peroxide hair and this 0:59:26.236 --> 0:59:28.596 and that. I changed it to like your polyester suit. 0:59:28.756 --> 0:59:32.196 And that's one that I always like to to direct 0:59:32.196 --> 0:59:35.316 at my husband's you know, when we're on stage. It's fun. 0:59:35.356 --> 0:59:36.276 It's such a fun song. 0:59:36.436 --> 0:59:38.916 It feels like it's directed at the music business. 0:59:39.196 --> 0:59:42.996 Yeah, absolutely, it absolutely could be. 0:59:43.516 --> 0:59:48.276 Yeah, everybody you met in your book, like who said, 0:59:48.276 --> 0:59:48.916 I don't think so. 0:59:49.396 --> 0:59:51.236 Yeah, we picked up the temple on that one. It 0:59:51.276 --> 0:59:53.956 feels like a I mean when you hear Whyaln's got 0:59:53.956 --> 0:59:57.876 a version of it and it's just it's laid back 0:59:57.916 --> 0:59:59.916 and whatever, but like me and the band be tear 0:59:59.956 --> 1:00:03.796 into it. It feels more like punk than even country. 1:00:04.316 --> 1:00:06.476 And then the George Jones song, Yes. 1:00:06.356 --> 1:00:09.076 I just don't give a damn. This song I became 1:00:09.116 --> 1:00:12.956 I'm obsessed with. There's a podcast that I love. My 1:00:13.036 --> 1:00:17.556 friend Tyler Mayhanko does. It's called Cocaine and Rhinestones, and 1:00:17.596 --> 1:00:21.076 he has a wonderful book as well, and he played 1:00:21.156 --> 1:00:23.996 he does. His whole second season was about George and Tammy. 1:00:24.516 --> 1:00:27.996 And when I started getting ready to do this record again, 1:00:28.036 --> 1:00:30.956 I saved the podcast so I could listen to it 1:00:31.156 --> 1:00:34.356 during this time and when I was really focused and 1:00:34.396 --> 1:00:38.156 at home and writing, and I'd never heard this song 1:00:38.236 --> 1:00:42.356 and George does it super slow, so again we up 1:00:42.356 --> 1:00:45.356 to the tempo. I love the guitar riff that my producer, 1:00:45.396 --> 1:00:47.916 Matt ross Spang came up with that it just opens 1:00:47.916 --> 1:00:51.996 it and it feels very like Jolene goes to Memphis 1:00:52.076 --> 1:00:54.756 or something. It's just got this lick that just sticks 1:00:54.756 --> 1:00:56.716 in your head. I'm sure he you know, he was 1:00:56.756 --> 1:01:01.396 singing it probably did Tammy or whatever when he wrote it. 1:01:01.396 --> 1:01:03.476 It was written George wrote it with a guy named 1:01:03.876 --> 1:01:06.876 Jimmy Peppers. I just think it's the best name. But 1:01:06.956 --> 1:01:12.076 I I've just reason that if ever you try to 1:01:12.116 --> 1:01:14.156 call me, you know, I'll be on my side of town. 1:01:15.356 --> 1:01:17.956 I feel that in my bones. It's like I'll be 1:01:18.036 --> 1:01:20.276 over here. You guys can do your thing over there. 1:01:21.036 --> 1:01:24.436 Just mm hmm. Leave it. At that that East West 1:01:24.516 --> 1:01:25.636 Divide in Nashville. 1:01:25.996 --> 1:01:28.476 Right that river right there, that Cumberland River. 1:01:28.916 --> 1:01:32.636 Yeah, keep on your own side. Well, thank you, it's 1:01:32.636 --> 1:01:33.676 been wonderful talking to you. 1:01:33.956 --> 1:01:35.596 Of course, I'm so grateful. 1:01:38.436 --> 1:01:40.316 In the episode description, you'll find a link to a 1:01:40.356 --> 1:01:42.836 playlist of our favorite Margo Price tracks, as well as 1:01:42.876 --> 1:01:45.956 her latest album, Hard Headed Woman. Be sure to check 1:01:45.956 --> 1:01:48.796 out YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast to see 1:01:48.876 --> 1:01:51.556 all of our video interviews, and be sure to follow 1:01:51.596 --> 1:01:54.716 us on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod. You can 1:01:54.716 --> 1:01:55.996 follow us on Twitter. 1:01:55.716 --> 1:01:56.836 At broken Record. 1:01:57.316 --> 1:02:00.236 Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with 1:02:00.356 --> 1:02:03.796 marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer 1:02:03.996 --> 1:02:08.356 is Ben Holliday. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. 1:02:09.236 --> 1:02:13.356 This show and others from Pushkin consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. 1:02:13.956 --> 1:02:17.236 Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content 1:02:17.316 --> 1:02:20.036 and ad pre listening for four ninety nine a month. 1:02:20.716 --> 1:02:24.596 Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions, and if 1:02:24.636 --> 1:02:27.116 you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and 1:02:27.156 --> 1:02:29.996 review us on your podcast app. Our theme music's back 1:02:30.036 --> 1:02:30.676 Anny Beats. 1:02:30.836 --> 1:02:31.916 I'm justin Richmond.