Ahead of Friday’s premiere of their CMT Crossroads, Margo Price and Nathaniel Rateliff have released a video of their performance of Price’s “Twinkle Twinkle.”
It’s a gritty, funky collaboration, with a Jimi Hendrix-like guitar riff and a healthy dose of swagger from both of the featured artists. Price takes the first verse, debunking the idea of “the good old days” of a recent past — they were spent watching TV, she says — before Rateliff summons dusty Southern spirits in lines about headphones, mama’s car, and a winding road. At the song’s midpoint, they stare each other down, weapons of percussion in hand: Rateliff on tambourine and Price banging away on a cowbell. “On the way it’s a bitch,” she sings.
“Twinkle Twinkle,” a song off Price’s 2020 album That’s How Rumors Get Started, is the second video released from their Crossroads pairing. It follows a rendition of Rateliff’s “Say It Louder,” a track from his 2018 album with the Night Sweats, Tearing at the Seams.
Rateliff and Price taped their CMT Crossroads at the Factory in Franklin, Tennessee, under Covid safety guidelines. There’s no audience present for the concert. The new installment of Crossroads premieres Friday, March 26th, at 10:00 p.m. ET on CMT.