Margo Price expands upon album 'Strays,' also returns to studio as producer, collaborator

Current Americana Music Association Artist of the Year nominee Margo Price has announced the Oct. 13 release of "Strays II." The three-part, nine-track song collection expands on work from "Strays," her January-released fourth studio album.

The expanded release is available for pre-save via https://i.margoprice.net/ActITopangaCanyon.

A press statement refers to the release as reflecting on "unique stories of love, grief and acceptance" about "the sacrifices it takes to find freedom, the grit it takes to make it, and the consequences that come with all of it."

A six-day summer psilocybin trip that Price took alongside her husband, Jeremy Ivey, spawned the project. Producer Jonathan Wilson, guitarist and vocalist Buck Meek of Texas' Big Thief, plus singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ny Oh, who currently works as the guitarist for pop sensation Harry Styles, were also involved in the making of the deluxe album.

The first series of three tracks for the October release — "Strays," "Closer I Get" and "Malibu" — have been compiled as a short film directed by Chris Phelps.

Price describes the album's title track and "Closer I Get" as the story of she and her husband's courtship two decades ago, plus how they have always tried to stay true to who we are as people — even following their psychedelic adventure.

"Love and pain it comes in waves, but it was quite enough in those early days; we were wild as wolves, my darlin'; we were strays," states the former's lyrics.

Price reflects on the latter: "I've always thought it was unfair that the moment we are born, we immediately start racking up debt just for existing. Sometimes your perception and depth of field changes depending on where you're at in life."

"Malibu" arrived after a Price trip through Topanga Canyon to Malibu while fleeing a wildfire and attempting to rescue her guitar from an Airbnb. The song's "country funk/Bobbie Gentry's 'Ode to Billie Joe' feel" features yodeling, "a good long rambling story about the minutiae of the day," and the final reflection that "love and grief are a package deal; the more you have, the more you feel."

Two weeks following "Strays," Price's latest work in the studio as a producer and collaborator — the self-proclaimed "First Lady of Outlaw Country" Jessi Colter's latest album "Edge of Forever" — arrives on Oct. 27.

Having met in 2017 at a book event, Colter describes working with Price as an "enjoyable project built on love."

Price adds: "When the force of nature that is Jessi Colter rolled into my life and picked me up in her Mercedes convertible, I knew I was in for a wild ride. When I felt lost, I could call on her and she would pray for me — with me. Jessi has such a strong faith; it's inspiring to be near her.

"I was blown away when she sang (album tracks) 'Standing on the Edge of Forever' and 'Angel in the Fire' back to back for me. It was such refined writing, the work of someone who had been continuously, quietly honing her craft. I knew she had to make another album and told her I would love to be a part of that experience."

Jessi Colter's Edge of Forever is available for pre-order via https://appalachiarecordco.com/store.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Margo Price expands on 'Strays,' returns to studio as producer, collaborator