Early last spring Third Man Records released Margo Price’s debut album and the singer was later featured in Uncut magazine in October 2016 before appearing on several year-end best of lists. Once or twice a year a country song will stop us in our tracks and that’s what autobiographical first track and single “Hands of Time” did late last year. The song came in at number 11 in our favourite songs of 2016 and probably should have rated a few spots higher. The tough talking Nashville transplant puts a protagonist in their place in “About to Find Out”. A dirty drum beat starts off “Tennessee” and the lyrics recall simpler times “the future ain’t what it used to be, let’s go back to Tennessee”.
Midwest Farmer’s Daughter has all the classic country prerequisites: heartbreak, take this situation and shove it stories, drinking stories, a fiddle here, a pedal steel guitar there, etc. “I killed the angel on my shoulder with a fifth of Evan Williams” being a particular favourite drinking lyric from “Since You Put Me Down”. “Weekender” spins a sad but great tale of spending the weekends in jail to a jaunty melody. The acoustic 1.30 minute track “World’s Greatest Loser” brings the album to a close on a quiet note. While sometimes veering into cliché, there are more than enough good tracks to make this a solid debut from a new and unique voice in country music.
7.5/10
The Light Appears 