Margo Price continues to embark on her own evolution with Strays II, an extension of her original 2023 opus with nine new songs that will arrive in the form of three distinct acts.
The Nashville singer-songwriter announced that the double album will arrive on Oct. 13, and shared Act I: Topanga Canyon on Monday at midnight. Each act is billed as “its own unique story of love, grief and acceptance.” On the first offering, a trio of songs, she’s joined by Strays producer Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Dawes), as well as new collaborators Buck Meek of Big Thief, and multi-instrumentalist Ny Oh (keyboardist on Harry’s House all-star band).
Tracks from the opening set include “Strays,” “Closer I Get (feat. Ny Oh),” and “Malibu (feat. Jonathan Wilson, Buck Meek).” All three acts promise to “further complement and intensify the resilient, resounding and hard-rocking proclamation that Price delivered across the initial LP earlier this year,” according to a press release. The tracks, per the release, were recorded at Wilson’s Topanga studio (where Strays sessions also took place) and were partially-written during a six-day psilocybin trip that Price and her husband and bandmate Jeremy Ivey took the summer prior.
“The title track is the story of how my husband Jeremy and I met and fell in love in Nashville two decades ago,” Price said in a statement. “I wrote most of the words and Jeremy wrote the chords and melody.” According to the singer, the lyrics “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,” reflect how the artist and her husband “have always tried to stay true to who we are as people.”
Act 1’s second track, “Closer I Get,” was originally intended to open the 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,” Price said. “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.”
When reflecting on the act’s final track, “Malibu,” Price said the song was written with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell in his Malibu home after she and Ivey had driven through a canyon fleeing a forest fire to retrieve her guitar from their 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,’” said Price.
The singer recently announced her work with Jessi Colter, who debuted “Standing on the Edge of Forever” with Rolling Stone last week. Price, who produced the record, also contributed vocals, guitar, and percussion.
In May, Price penned a personal essay for Rolling Stone on gun control following the Covenant shooting. The essay discusses gun violence, Nashville protests, and white privilege.
Price and her band will hit the road this September for a fall leg of her Til the Wheels Fall Off Tour, in addition to performing at Hopscotch, XPoNential, Pilgrimage, and Farm Aid.
Strays II Track List
Act I: Topanga Canyon
1. “Strays”
2. “Closer I Get” (feat. Ny Oh)
3. “Malibu” (feat. Jonathan Wilson, Buck Meek)
Act II: Mind Travel
1. “Black Wolf Blues”
2. “Mind Travel”
3. “Unoriginal Sin” (feat. Mike Campbell)
Act III: Burn Whatever’s Left
1. “Homesick” (feat. Jonathan Wilson)
2. “Where Did We Go Wrong”
3. “Burn Whatever’s Left”