Review

Margo Price has put a bonafide country classic on her listeners ears with Lydia.

The guitar-and-strings, half-spoken, half-sung lament of the troubled titual character is the centerpiece of Strays. Set in an abortion clinic in a neighborhood swimming in opioids, Lydia further blazes and modernizes Loretta Lynns trail of The Pill, as Price tells the story:

Then I came home after dancin one night/and I wrecked my car and see I have to take the bus now/so you’ve got a long walk to think about it/a long walk to the station/a long life ahead to live with yourself/so think about it, Lydia.

The balance of the album – which includes cameos from Mike Campbell, Sharon Van Etten and Lucius – is a departure for Price as she straddles Nashville with one foot planted in Laurel Canyon and the other on the East Coast. She channels Lou Reed on the opening Been to the Mountain and mixes up Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen on Country Road.

Strays is a circuitous journey, full of exciting detours and the occasional cul-de-sac.

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Kristopher Weiss, jambands.com

Product Details

Strays finds Price pushing well past Nashville’s comfort zone, drawing on the same restless spirit that made her early residencies at the Station Inn a proving ground before major labels came calling. The Topanga Canyon sessions suit her perfectly, that loose California air giving room to songs that hit harder for their honesty.

In just three remarkable solo albums Margo Price has cemented herself as a forcein American music and a generational talent. On her fourth full-length Strays,recorded in Topanga Canyon and produced by Jonathan Wilson, the singer andsongwriter presents a clear-eyed mission statement delivered in blistering rockandroll.Margo Price has something to say, and nothing to prove.

Tracklist

1.Been To The Mountain (5:28)2.Light Me Up (5:05)3.Radio (2:49)4.Change Of Heart (4:04)5.County Road (6:08)6.Time Machine (2:46)7.Hell In The Heartland (4:28)8.Anytime You Call (3:48)9.Lydia (6:12)10.Landfill (5:36)

UPC: 888072475038
Label: Loma Vista
Release Date: 1.13.23
Format: CD