Margo Price talks country music, Snoop Dogg and jail time

As is often the case, it’s taken Margo Price a lot of hard graft, heartbreak and having to deal with some serious fuckwits to become an overnight sensation.

“People see ‘debut solo record’ and think you’re new to the game, but I’ve been doing this for a long, long time,” drawls the native of Buffalo Prairie, Illinois (pop. 824) who’ll soon be celebrating her 34th birthday.

Price was going nowhere exceedingly fast when she found herself with time to kill in Memphis. Being a massive Elvis fan, she decided to spend the little money she had on a recording session in the legendary Sun Studios. With no label eager to hear the results, it was a total shot in the dark but ended up being the catalyst for Margo’s current country music ‘next big thing’ status.

“We did the main recording – band, strings, everything - in three days,” she reveals. “Thinking back on it it’s just a blur because we were working so quickly. It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the sense of history when you walk into Sun – ‘Oh wow, that’s where Dylan came in and kissed the ground where Elvis had stood.’ The funny thing is when we first went there it was to do the tourist tour. I didn’t know it was still a functioning studio until we came out of the gift shop and saw the neon sign saying, ‘Make your own recording’. Suddenly this idea came into my head; ‘Let’s record here and see if the creative energy rubs off on us’, which I think it did. Old technology’s where it’s at most of the time.”

Price had zero idea when she was in Sun that the sessions would eventually end up being listened to by Jack White, who immediately decided to sign her to his Nashville-based Third Man Records label. “It was a case of ‘get the songs down and worry about finding a home for them later’,” she resumes. “I was as surprised as everybody else when the call came through saying, ‘Jack loves your voice and wants to release it.’”

Titled Midwest Farmer’s Daughter in honour of Loretta Lynn, who’s also been championed by the White Stripe, it’s as honest a record as you’re likely to hear this or any other year, with Price reflecting on the death of her infant son, Zach; the bank foreclosing on the family farm when she was a kid; the perils of taking up with married men and the “drinkin’ whiskey like water” that resulted in her being jailed for DUI.

“I managed to keep that skeleton from my sister until the record came out,” Margo laughs. “In case you’re wondering, prison is nothing like Orange Is The New Black! There are two people to a room, with just a toilet and a bed and a sink. You get no personal belongings; you can’t even have a bible. You’re locked in there all day and get out maybe two times to go eat. It was really eye opening to see how women in there live. It’s very sad.”

As you may have gleaned by now, this is the sort of country with dirt under its fingernails rather than shellac on them.

“I’m of the ‘country music is about divorce, drinking and jail’ persuasion, but to other people it means different things,” she reflects. “It’s all got a bit saccharine recently, which is why I thought I should try and make it in the rock ‘n’ roll scene. I keep my dial on something else and don’t get too caught up in that world. I live in the Five Points part of East Nashville where the musicians are younger and more eclectic than they would be on Broadway where it’s mainly cover bands. I’m as big a Tom Petty, White Stripes, Led Zeppelin and Snoop Dogg fan as I am a Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and Marty Robbins one, so Five Points is my kind of neighbourhood.”

Snoop being bezzie mates with Willie Nelson.

“They obviously have one thing majorly in common!” Margo laughs again. “I so want to hangout with Snoop Dogg…”

Interest in Margo skyrocketed last year after she appeared on the same Later With Jools Holland… as Blossoms, Graham Nash, Protoje, Lou Doillon and Iggy Pop.

“That was so awesome,” she enthuses. “I was really tickled that Iggy came over and said ‘hi’ to me. He’s so warm and charming. It was Josh from the band’s birthday so we were doing tequila shots backstage and generally enjoying the BBC’s hospitality.”

Margo was recently spotted doing an American radio session with a Third Man Records ‘Icky Trump’ t-shirt on. How did that go down in the southern States?

“Some people appreciated it, others really didn’t,” she laughs again. “I don’t care, he’s not my president. We were in Washington DC. the day of the election and the mood was very sombre and defeated. It’s sad to see a country so divided, and going backwards in terms of people’s rights being eroded. At first I was depressed, but now I’m more angry and thinking, ‘We have to stand up to this guy!’” Midwest Farmer’s Daughter gets a live airing on January 22 when Margo Price plays the Dublin Button Factory