Link copied
Margo Price has unveiled an expanded edition of her celebrated Strays project, which will feature nine new tracks. The double-album will be released on October 13.
The new songs have been divided into three distinct acts, with the first having been made available immediately. ‘Act I: Topanga Canyon’ consists of the project's title-track, along with ‘Closer I Get’ featuring Ny Oh’ and ‘Malibu’ with Jonathan Wilson and Buck Meek.
Speaking about the newly released ‘Act I: Topanga Canyon’, Price outlined how ‘Strays’ came about, “The title track is the story of how my husband Jeremy and I met and fell in love in Nashville two decades ago. I wrote most of the words and Jeremy wrote the chords and melody. It also reflects how we have always tried to stay true to who we are as people: ‘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.’”.
The ‘Change of Heart’ singer-songwriter also delved into the process behind the other two tracks released today, “Closer I Get’ (co-written with Jeremy Ivey) was originally meant to open this double album with the line, ‘Being alive costs a lot of money but so does dying.’ I’ve always thought it was unfair that the moment we are born, we immediately start racking up debt just for existing. This song was conjured from the ashes of our initial psychedelic trip – sometimes your perception and depth of field changes depending on where you’re at in life”.
Price went on to explain, “‘Malibu’ was written with Mike Campbell in his Malibu home after Jeremy and I had driven through the canyon fleeing a forest fire to get my guitar from our Airbnb. I had the start of the song and brought it to him looking to finish it out. I wanted to write something with a country funk/Bobbie Gentry feel, a good long rambling story about the minutiae of the day, like ‘Ode to Billy Joe.’ Mike added the long ‘California’ yodel and the bridge and was exactly what the song needed. My favorite line is ‘love and grief are a package deal, the more you have, the more you feel.’”
The original Strays was widely lauded, earning Margo Price a deserved slew of nominations at the 2023 Americana Honors & Awards, including a nod for ‘Album of the Year’.
Following the release of ‘Act I: Topanga Canyon’, fans will be keenly looking forward to hearing ‘Act II’ ahead of the full project, which is due to drop on October 13.
For more on Margo Price, see below:
