It goes without saying that the best Country songwriters and performers are the ones who draw on life experience, honor an array of influences and who respect the intelligence of their fans. There are too many of the other kind, those who follow formulaic industry tropes, stick to a narrow genre, and prefer catchy hooks over hard truths. The second kind are the ones who perform the same show, from night-to-night, and every note is the same, no matter the city or venue. Another thing about great artists is they live fully into the moment when they perform, honoring the place, the time and the audience in each unique city, venue and setting. And Margo Price is a great artist.
Price’s life experience is laid out for all to see in her music. From the opening song of her debut album, “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter,” through her 2023 album, “Strays,” her songs are a deeply personal narrative, giving fully of herself to each lyric. From pain to ecstasy, from personal ethos to an unapologetic demand for social justice, Margo Price doesn’t write hooky pop songs. She holds nothing back. And if that’s not the best kind of Country, I don’t know what is.
Not that Price is all Country. Her debut album, recorded at historic Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, is deeply steeped in Country, but as her career unfolds, so does our glimpse into her catalog of influences. From her second, third and fourth albums, “All American Made,” “That’s How Rumors Get Started,” and 2023’s “Strays,” Price dabbles in Funk, Tex-Mex, Surf, full-throated Rock-and-Roll and an array of other influences. She has partnered with the likes of Kenny Vaughan, Willie Nelson, the McCrary Sisters, Sturgill Simpson, Jonathan Wilson, Mike Campbell, Lawrence Rothman, Sharon Van Etten, Lucius and others.
Welcome to The Fillmore!
On February 10, 2023, Price brought it all, her life stories and experiences, her broad influences, and her open heart and mind to her first appearance at the historic Fillmore in San Francisco. And, like the greatest artists, she met the moment!
She knew exactly where she was and she dialed into the spirit of the place. In the midst of her show, she said, “This is a special place. I felt it as soon as I saw that picture of Janis naked,” referencing the famous Rolling Stone photo by Bob Seidemann that hangs in the venue’s main bar.
As with other shows on the tour, Price led off with the opening song from Strays, “Been to the Mountain.” She has made it known that “Mountain” is the product of a mushroom trip she and her husband Jeremy Ivey took together. Still, she took the opportunity to raise every psychedelic ghost in the room in this trippy, hard-driving opener.
She kept the groove going with “Letting Me Down,” and the Country Blues number “Four Years of Chances,” followed by the ballad “Hell in the Heartland.”
Then, to everyone’s delight, she brought Bay Area mainstay Chuck Prophet to the stage, and he began the recognizable lead to the Jefferson Airplane classic “White Rabbit.” Even though Grace Slick is alive and well and was probably somewhere within a 25-mile radius of The Fillmore that night, Price made the cosmic connection and brought a vision of Grace into the room.
After “White Rabbit,” and keeping the energy high, Price sat down at her drum kit, sidled up next to drummer Dillon Napier, and started pounding out — and belting out “Change of Heart.”
The show kept pulsing from beautiful ballads like “County Road” to price getting on the drums again to pound out Elvis Costello’s sarcastic and hard driving “Pump It Up.”
She had the room wrapped around her little finger throughout. Then, at the encore, she brought out the show’s opener Lola Kirke and her band mates (including the soon-to-be-famous guitar player Ellen Angelico), Chuck Prophet, and Oakland-based Country singer Miko Marks to join her in singing the Paul McCartney and Wings classic “Let Me Roll It.” Prophet playing the punctuated guitar licks, Price and Marks taking turns on verses, and the whole ensemble joining in on the chorus. Unlike all those shows where too many people are on stage, and it’s a cacophonous mess, everyone knew their role, and every note landed spot on… but Price wasn’t done yet.
After “Roll It,” the band and guests left the stage as Price climbed over the baricade and walked to the center of the dance floor. Then, a capella, she belted out the Janis Joplin classic “Mercedes Benz.” Those of us old enough to remember it sang along and swayed along and erupted in gratitude that she had taken every one of us into the spirit world with her that night.
I’m sure that Margo Price brings it every single night of her tour and that every audience connects with her on some level. That said, there was something magical in the air at The Fillmore that night, and 1,300 souls witnessed a truly great artist join the pantheon of Fillmore history.