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She's been labeled as the new badass of outlaw country music, but for Margo Price, it's not a persona she has cultivated.
"I certainly didn't create that label. Maybe it's just because I'm doing something a little bit different than a lot of women in country music, in the mainstream especially," Price said in an interview this week, quoting country legend Marty Stuart who said, "The most outlaw thing you can do in Nashville these days is play country music."
Still, as Price comes to Salt Lake City for a show at The State Room on Saturday night, few are generating as much buzz in the country music world as Price, who has recently landed appearances on "Saturday Night Live," "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "Conan," "CBS This Morning" and "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown."
It's a long way from where she first fell in love with music, sitting around an old record player in her grandmother's basement, listening to the mountains of records that her great-uncle, noted songwriter Bobby Fischer, had accumulated over the years or listening to the radio all night at her other grandmother's house.
The highlight for Price, however, hasn't been the television appearances or national attention, but having the opportunity to play with some of those musical heroes she listened to in Grandma's basement, the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson.
Indeed, Price has traveled a long road, but it has been far from an easy one, and her travails are unflinchingly cataloged on her latest album, "Midwest Farmer's Daughter," most notably in the album's first autobiographical track, "Hands of Time."
On the track, Price chronicles her trek from small-town Illinois — where her father lost the farm when she was 2 — venturing out with $57 to her name, trying to make it in music but taking up with the bottle and a married man.
She gave birth to twins, but one of the two, Ezra, died and, as she sings in the plaintive track, "I cried out to God, 'Is there anybody out there looking down on me at all?' "
The song's chorus has a soulful refrain, "I want to buy back the farm/And bring my mama home some wine/Turn back the clock on the cruel hands of time."
"I just sat down one day and wrote all the words out, and it came out very quickly lyrically, and i just couldn't find the right frame for it and I kept rewiring it and changing," she said. "Eventually it worked itself out, but it's just a very plainspoken way of talking about what has happened in my life and really lays out who I am as a person in a very concise way."
After her son died, Price spiraled, and she ended up in jail for wrecking her car after a night of drinking. It was, she says, a time she wishes she didn't have to go through and is perhaps lucky to have survived.
"I think everyone goes through a lot in their 20s. I unfortunately had to go through a lot of things people in their mid-20s don't have to deal with," Price said. "It was an ugly time, but I definitely came out of the situation with a different outlook on life. I think I grew from it, but I definitely have regrets. I definitely wish I could have enjoyed my time with my son more than I did, but I was not in a good space."
Today things are brighter. Her husband and writing partner, Jeremy Ivey, still tours with her, although on the latest road trip he has been at home in Nashville, taking care of daddy duties, Price says, doing dishes, taking her son to preschool and getting ready for Halloween — 5-year-old Judah is going to be Batman for the third year.
"I'm just happy to play music and have a career," said Price. "I think a lot of people don't get that opportunity. Tons of people with talent who just haven't got their foot in the door because it's hard, and I feel very fortunate."
Price said she is "dying to get back in the studio" and get to work on a new album.
"I've got songs, songs, songs, songs," said Price, who plans to start recording in December and have the new record out in the spring. "I really think now I have an audience and people who care about what I do. I feel really driven to keep moving and have a high output of songs and work. … This is what I've been waiting for."
Tickets for Price's show at The State Room are still available for $18 at thestateroom.com.
Twitter: @RobertGehrke —
Margo Price, featuring William Tyler
O Saturday • 8 p.m. at The State Room, 638 S. State, $18 › thestateroom.com