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Dec 13, 2017 Margo Price By Matthew Berlyant

Margo Price is one of the most praised alt-country singers of the last few years. Her aclaimed 2016 debut Midwest Farmer’s Daughter is now followed by this, her second proper studio LP (although an EP entitled Weakness was released earlier this year). Although signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records, any notions that she is like a modern day Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline, or Tammy Wynette should be out of your head immediately once you hear this record. While a throwback musically, the time it reminds me of the most isn’t the ‘50s, ‘60s, or even the ‘70s, but rather the early ‘80s when Juice Newton ruled both the country and pop charts with hits like “Queen of Hearts” and “Angel of the Morning.”

Additionally, the records (Musical Shapes and Blue Nun) that Carlene Carter made during that same time period when she was married to Nick Lowe and had members of Rockpile and Squeeze backing her seem to be a touchstone here. However, she is more stark, serious, and utterly badass (as well as thoroughly modern) than a mere revivalist. This is especially shown in her lyrical approach, which in the best sense of the phrases, is straight from the heart and straight to the point. Relationships dominate the content of songs like “Don’t Say It,” “A Little Pain,” and “Do Right By Me,” but on “Pay Gap” (the fifth track here), Price shows that she has political concerns on her mind as well. Noting the pay differences between men and women and extorting “Don’t give me that feminism crap,” this is a strong, fearless, independent woman bucking the “stand by your man” image that many still have of women in country music and telling the chauvinists in charge of so much of our government now to shove it. On “Heart of America” and the closing title track, she takes this one step further by singing about her family history on the latter track and relating it to the experience of many other rural Americans who were adversely affected by what happened to farms during the Reagan years. There is even a lovely duet with Willie Nelson on “Learning to Lose.”

Though she’s only on her second album, Price sings with the confidence of a seasoned veteran. Let’s hope she sticks around for a long time to come. Country music, and America in general, needs more voices like her. (www.margoprice.net)

Author rating: 8/10