Margo Price

Margo Price arrived with a retro aura upon unveiling her first album, Midwest Farmer's Daughter, during 2016. Building directly on the path charted by Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, and Emmylou Harris, she also summoned the singer/songwriters active at the start of the 1970s through her focus on distinctive particulars and narrative skill, traits that kept her adherence to tradition from registering as mere reminiscence. Once Midwest Farmer's Daughter cemented her stature inside Americana, she stretched her range with 2017's All American Made before veering deeper into rock on That's How Rumors Get Started, the 2020 album overseen by Sturgill Simpson. With the early-2023 arrival of Strays, Price stood equally as a rock performer and a country one, their combination arriving fresh and unpredictable.

A transplant to Nashville originally from the Midwest, she was born in Aledo, Illinois, a modest community near the state's western boundary. She sang in church while growing up and later studied dance and theater in college. At age 20 in 2003 she left school and moved to Nashville, slowly assembling a music career between assorted temporary jobs. There she met bassist Jeremy Ivey; the pair soon launched the band Buffalo Clover and eventually married. Buffalo Clover issued three independent albums between 2010 and 2013. After the group disbanded, Price formed Margo & the Pricetags, a revolving ensemble that occasionally included future alt-country star Sturgill Simpson.

She self-funded a solo album recorded at Sun Studios in 2015. After learning through Nashville channels that Jack White, who had seen her at local showcases, admired her work, she forwarded the recordings to him. Impressed, White signed her to Third Man Records and issued the album as Midwest Farmer's Daughter in March 2016, drawing nearly unanimous critical praise.

Price delivered the four-track Weakness EP in July 2017; its title song became the lead single for her second album, All American Made, released that October and featuring Willie Nelson on the track "Learning to Lose." All American Made reached number 12 on Billboard's Country charts, raising her profile and yielding a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Following that recognition she moved to Lomo Vista Records and began work on her third album, produced by Sturgill Simpson. With guest appearances from Benmont Tench and Pino Palladino, That's How Rumors Get Started was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading her to release Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman, a live album capturing her 2018 engagement at the famed Nashville venue, that May. That's How Rumors Get Started surfaced in July 2020, debuting at number 17 on Billboard's Country charts and number 151 on the Top 200.

Price released her autobiography Maybe We'll Make It: A Memoir in 2022, only months before the January 13, 2023 arrival of her fourth album, Strays. Co-produced by Jonathan Wilson, previously associated with Father John Misty, the record showed Price weaving in further rock, soul, and indie pop elements, aided by guests Mike Campbell, Sharon Van Etten, and Lucius.