I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel finally
Ilana Kaplan | December 18, 2020 - 10:15 am
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CREDIT: Bobbi Rich
Like so many artists, Margo Price had a, well, interesting year. The Nashville singer-songwriter originally planned to release
That’s How Rumors Get Started, her third studio album, in May before getting pushed to July. But 2020 had other plans. Her husband, Jeremy Ivey, contracted COVID, a devastating tornado crashed into Nashville and she was raising a newborn.
If you slept on Price’s latest project which made our list of the best albums of 2020 it saw Price inching more toward Southern rock and away from country. The album featured some of Price’s most intimate songwriting, touching on a rocky point in her romantic relationship when distance became a strain, the struggles of being a touring musician who loves the road but misses her family and motherhood.
In a year bereft of most live music, recordings took on added import and resonance. I upgraded my home stereo in February, unaware that I’d be spending more hours between the speakers than ever. Given the artistic abundance of our Americana music community, that was no problem at all.
The year’s albums engaged in a fruitful, righteous dialogue with the tumult of the world, including the ones made before the pandemic. Many projects seemed prophetic. Artists channeled their anguish over living under an abusive, dishonest leader by reaffirming their commitment to empathy, honesty and care. There were veterans trying something new, voices from marginalized communities, updates of venerable traditions and exciting debuts. So let’s get to it.
In a year bereft of most live music, recordings took on added import and resonance. I upgraded my home stereo in February, unaware that I’d be spending more hours between the speakers than ever. Given the artistic abundance of our Americana music community, that was no problem at all.
The year’s albums engaged in a fruitful, righteous dialogue with the tumult of the world, including the ones made before the pandemic. Many projects seemed prophetic. Artists channeled their anguish over living under an abusive, dishonest leader by reaffirming their commitment to empathy, honesty and care. There were veterans trying something new, voices from marginalized communities, updates of venerable traditions and exciting debuts. So let’s get to it.
Margo Price: That’s How Rumors Get Started
The modern-day “Queen of Nashville,” Margo Price is a sheer force of nature, onstage and in the studio. Taking a page from her buddy, fellow country-rocker Sturgill Simpson (who also produced the album), Price takes her country/folk roots and turns the amps all the way up, literally and figuratively. It’s a rollercoaster of sound and intent, with Price once again at the center of lyrical subjects many in Music City still ignore. For every “bless your heart” aimed at her from the industry elite, she reciprocates the sentiment with middle fingers held high, guns blazin’.
Rolling Stone Menu Year in Review: The 30 Best Country and Americana Albums of 2020
Ashley McBryde, Chris Stapleton, and others rise to meet an uncertain year
By Photographs by Amy Harris/Invision/AP; Bridgette Aikens ; Remi Theriault ; Becky Fluke
Songwriting, songwriting, songwriting: The albums on our year’s-best list all raised the bar with their lyricism. Whether artists were writing and singing about serious subjects like addiction and family strife (Waylon Payne, Ashley McBryde), or just coming up with a fresh way to describe getting stoned (The Cadillac Three, Brent Cobb), they reached new heights in their craft.
But let’s not overlook the production of our entries either. Chris Stapleton recharged his sound with an assist from two of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Margo Price gave classic rock a bear hug, and Lilly Hiatt dove headfirst into R.E.M. indie rock. Sturgill Simpson, meanwhile, dialed it way back, returning to his roots with a pair of b