The avalanche of interest in this debut on Jack White’s label owes as much to Margo Price’s backstory as to her talents as singer-songwriter. Indeed, the two are inseparable, as opener Hands of Time makes clear, detailing how Price hit the road after her dad had lost the farm. She was spurned by Nashville, spent time in jail and lost a child. It’s gritty stuff, leavened with strings and delivered with a yearning defiance that recalls Bobbie Gentry. Price and her husband eventually pawned their wedding ring to cut the album at Sun’s analog Memphis studios. She is no innovator, but her vocals burn, her band is honky-tonk tough, and songs such as Hurtin’ on the Bottle (co-written with Caitlin Rose) tap straight into country tradition. A winner.
