Margo Price burst on the country music scene with her 2016 largely autobiographical debut “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter,” earning her breakthrough artist of the year accolades, it was reasonable to wonder how she’d follow it up.
The answer, it seems, was along the lines of: “Here, hold my whiskey.”
Her second LP, “All American Made,” is a rager, full of feminist-fueled anger, rocking protest anthems and heart-aching disappointment at a political landscape that has left behind many from Price’s roots.
She brings that message and music back to The State Room on Friday, where she wowed her audience in October 2016, just a few weeks before returning to the studio to record her latest record.
“I’ve always been one to want to discuss those things and try to make our country the best that it can be,” Price said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “But it’s so many complex and so many ugly, violent things that have been happening. It’s really hard to turn a blind eye to that. … Our voices are all we have right now, and it’s important to use them.”
Price has a lot to say on “All American Made.” It’s most apparent on tracks like “Pay Gap,” a Loretta Lynn-style protest against wage discrimination — “They’re all the same in the eyes of God,” she sings, “but in the eyes of rich white men no more than a maid to be owned like a dog, a second class citizen” — and the title track from the album, which features a haze of political speeches disconnected from the tales of working-class struggles in the song.
She talks about society’s double standards in “Wild Women,” and retains the honky tonk twang from her first album on cuts like “Cocaine Cowboys,” and throws in an unexpectedly funky “Do Right By Me.”
Last time she came through town, Price said in an interview that the highlight of her career has been able to play with some of her musical heroes — Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris and company — and her new album features a sublime duet with the legendary Willie Nelson, “Learning to Lose,” with Price’s sweet drawl a perfect complement to Willie’s trademark whine.
Rolling Stone hailed “All American Made” as the 16th best album of 2017, saying that “No other country act, and precious few from any genre, went nearly as deep as Price did this year.” So once again, one could ask how she’ll top that. But when you can witness a talent like that in a venue as intimate as The State Room, it should not be missed.
Her Friday show is sold out, but you could luck out and get tickets on The State Room’s ticket exchange or at the venue. Doors open at 8 p.m. with Nashville-based roots band Blank Range — named one of the “10 New Country Bands You Need To Know” by Rolling Stone — opening the evening.
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