Margo Price Belongs 'To No One' As She Debuts Powerful, Psychedelic Project
By Kelly Fisher
January 13, 2023
Margo Price’s barrier-breaking, genre-blending musical style makes a powerful return in the singer-songwriter’s anticipated fourth studio album, debuting on Friday (January 13). Strays takes its listeners on a psychedelic, 10-track journey, which Price previously described as a “snapshot in time, a search for freedom in a society gone mad- through pleasure, pain, love, death, addiction, grief, failure & faith, come transformation.”
Price, known for her determination to stay true to her own music rather than conforming to anyone else’s vision, is now inviting listeners to listen to Strays, “party with it, laugh with it, cry with it, primal scream with it, however you get your music.”
Recorded live with her band in California’s breathtaking Topanga Canyon, Strays features collaborations with Mike Campbell, Sharon Van Etten and Lucius, among a few previously-released singles (“Been To The Mountain,” “Change of Heart” and “Lydia”). It was produced by Jonathan Wilson. The stunning cover art feature price in a flowing pink dress, running across a wide-open desert landscape with a clear blue sky in the backdrop. It was shot by Alysse Gafkjen in Bentonite Hills, Utah.
Strays is a project years in the making, marking a transitional time in Price’s life. The singer-songwriter reflected on the album and went on to thank her producer, her band and others: “I started writing songs for my album Strays 3 years ago and it’s finally out today, fittingly on Friday the 13th! It’s a witchy record that was forged in the fire of many substances and in the midst of a heavy personal reckoning. I really do thank the mushrooms for opening up my mind and giving me the confidence I needed to reinvent myself. …I can’t wait to tour the hell out of these songs because they mean the world to me ❤️🔥🍄🌹”
“‘What if I burn all my bridges, and can never find my way home again?,’ I ask my partner, with tears running down my cheeks. He turns to me and simply says, ‘you belong to no one,’” Price reflected in her album’s trailer (telling a story that she found so powerful, it inspired a tattoo on her arm). “I’ve been running for so long. My mind is tired, my heart aches. At times, humans behave more like animals than animals. Chief Seattle said, ‘the earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth…All things are connected, like the blood that unites us all.’
“Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself,” Price continued. “Everything around us is continuously shifting, decaying. That impermanence keeps me thirsty. Everything changes, and nothing lasts forever because time is not real. It’s elastic. It repeats and fades away like a cloud, like a tide, like an apparition. I belong to no one. I am cosmic dust, I am a speck on a speck. I am air. I am a shadow. I am a leaf in the forest. I am a star in the darkness. I am a red-tail hawk. I belong to no one.”
- Been To The Mountain
- Light Me Up, feat. Mike Campbell
- Radio, feat. Sharon Van Etten
- Change Of Heart
- County Road
- Time Machine
- Hell In The Heartland
- Anytime You Call, feat. Lucius
- Lydia
- Landfill
Price marked Strays’ release with a high-energy album release event one night early, on Thursday (January 12), at Riverside Revival in East Nashville, Tennessee. The performance with her band included Price’s newest release and previously-released fan-favorites, peppered with Price’s multi-instrumental flair (rocking guitars, drums and more throughout the show), an Elvis Costello cover, roses tossed into the crowd and other elements solidifying a vibrant, memorable live performance. Find Strays on iHeartRadio here, and listen to a few of the tracks below.