A powerful message that’s relayed with the kind of vigour and skill needed to make people sit up and listen.
“In his oval room, in his rockin’ chair / He’s the president, but I don’t care / He’s a business man, he got business ties / He got dollar signs in both his eyes,” Margo Price sings on Oval Room, a song it would be natural to assume was written by Price about current US president, and former reality TV star, Donald Trump, but in fact, it was originally penned by one of Price’s heroes, Blaze Foley, way back in 1984 about then president Ronald Regan. On Price’s new album, Days of Unrest, there is a smattering of original material too, but covers make up the bulk of it and, boy, has she chosen some heavy hitters to reinterpret, putting her spin on songs by greats like Charlie Daniels, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.
But Price wasn’t content with just covering legends, so she got a couple to guest alongside her as well, with Joan Baez and Billy Swan both making appearances on the album. Baez features on Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos), a song originally performed by Guthrie that, much like Foley’s Oval Room, could easily have been written about modern day circumstances, brought into focus as Baez’s evocative voice sings of her “father’s own father” trying to live the American dream, only for his money to be stolen as immigrants are chased “like rustlers, like outlaws, like thieves”. Swan contributes harmonies on Long Haired Country Girl, a gender flipped version of Daniel’s Long Haired Country Boy, a twist which gives lyrics like “If you don’t like the way I’m livin’ / Just leave this long-haired country girl alone” a new meaning when contextualised with the war on women’s rights that is now once again being fought in the USA.
Price gives us her take on the traditional Spanish folk song De Colores, which has notably been recorded by Baez in the past. Backed by the pitch-perfect Memphis Mariachi, it feels completely authentic and is proof of the love and respect Price has for the source material. Maggie’s Farm is just as rousing as Dylan’s original, with Price revolting against authority as she’s accompanied by stellar guitar work by Logan Ledger and Sean Thompson, and some equally skilled harmonica by her husband, Jeremy Ivey.
Can’t Stand Still sits alongside three instrumental tracks as the only original Price material. A song that dates back to her early Nashville when she performed as part of Buffalo Clover, it fits perfectly with the theme of defiant righteous that fuels the album as Price rails against the norm: “But my papa says I gotta get married / Mama told me, “Settle down” / But I got me a ticket on a big jet plane / I’m gonna fly straight out of town.”
“Shut up and sing” was what the Chicks were famously told to do when lead vocalist Natalie Maines dared to voice her political views back in 2003, but I think it’s safe to say if Price has ever been told to keep her opinions to herself, she has disregarded it for the utter nonsense it is. In our increasingly hostile world, we need strong female voices to stand up for the things and people they believe in, and on Days of Unrest Price does just that, and, as a bonus, she sounds pretty darn great in the process.
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