美国国家公共电台 NPR--Margo Price shares the struggles, joy behind new album

Margo Price shares the struggles, joy behind new album

Transcript¹

Nashville artist Margo Price's fourth album, released earlier this month, began as a psychedelic trip with her husband and musical partner Jeremy Ivey in 2020.

Price and Ivey wrote a total of 20 songs, half of which made it on Strays. The eclectic album takes wild leaps from indie country to honky-tonk, psychedelia and expansive rock and roll. "I didn't want to get stuck in thinking like, is this country, is this Americana, is this rock and roll, is this psychedelic?" the alt-country singer told NPR's Leila Fadel. "Yet everybody wants to label things and put them in a box. I wanted this album to be feral and free."

It's packed with the raw joy and pain of a rags-to-riches story that saw her pawn² her wedding ring, lose a newborn baby but also find love and win a battle over alcoholism.

It's raw and it's real.

"Used to be a waitress but now I'm a consumer / I've been on food stamps I've been out of my mind / I rolled in dirty dollars stood in the welfare line," she sings in the opener, "Been to the Mountain."

The defiant³ Price then retorts: "This ain't the end!"

Exploring what Price calls "new sonic territory" came from a place of great vulnerability, an "emptiness" she felt when the pandemic hit just as her career was finally getting off the ground.

"It's difficult to be vulnerable. I think this culture doesn't always see that as a strong characteristic. But I've learned that it is one of my best qualities," she said. "If you can find joy after going through something really tragic⁴ and if you can figure out how to how to channel that and transform it, I think that is the whole meaning of life."

The couple had traveled to South Carolina, where they brought guitars, notebooks and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

"I have had just absolute revelations that I do not think that I would have came to had I not taken psilocybin," Price said, referring to the hallucinogenic chemical. "I really wanted to take away a lot of the stigma⁵ with that and just be transparent⁶ about how I've used them and how they have helped me with addiction⁷ and depression."

Price also chronicled her struggles in a memoir⁸ published in October, Maybe We'll Make It. "I've struggled with self-image my whole life," Price said in the interview. "The success and the money and the fame, those things don't really make your problems go away. Sometimes they amplify⁹ them."

But not all the songs on Strays are deeply personal. Some veer¹⁰ into storytelling. For the single "Lydia," Price strums chords on an acoustic¹¹ guitar as she describes a woman's visit to an abortion¹² clinic. A string band accompanies her on the otherwise spare track.

"It was one of those really mystical songs that kind of came to me after weeks of really being kind of in a manic state," Price said. "That song just kind of poured out of me... None of it rhymed. There wasn't even really a melody. I've always wanted to write a song like that." She wrote the song before the U.S. Supreme¹³ Court overturned Roe¹⁴ v. Wade¹⁵. It now doubles as an ode to women's rights.

"I wrote the soundtrack to probably what a lot of a lot of women in this country are thinking and are going through at this point," she added.

For "Lydia," Margo Price tells the story of a woman at an abortion clinic.

The flip¹⁶ side is "Light Me Up," which explores women's pleasure. "It starts in a very sweet, loving place. And then it it does escalate¹⁷ to basically this big orgasm," Price said. " I thought of all the songs that men have written about their orgasms, that we should explore that."

She describes creating "Hell in the Heartland" as a "cathartic¹⁸ experience." Written shortly after Price quit drinking, it's a reckoning of who she had been and who she wanted to be.

"I was thinking about how you just you get lost looking in the mirror. All you see is this reflection of yourself in the past. And it is talking about living in the present and just being able to shed those things," she said. "It's a very dark song, but it was incredibly cathartic to write and and to play."

While she has engaged in deep self-reflection, Price has not dwelled in it. She's experienced a new burst of creativity — songwriting, but also painting and poetry. "I can go back to those places, but it's just a lot more enjoyable to live my life in the present," she said.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 pawn   

n.典当，抵押，小人物，走卒；v.典当，抵押

参考例句：

• He is contemplating pawning his watch.他正在考虑抵押他的手表。
• It looks as though he is being used as a political pawn by the President.看起来他似乎被总统当作了政治卒子。

3 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

4 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

5 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

6 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

7 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

8 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

9 amplify   

vt.放大，增强；详述，详加解说

参考例句：

• The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
• Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。

10 veer   

vt.转向，顺时针转，改变；n.转向

参考例句：

• He is unlikely to veer from his boss's strongly held views.他不可能背离他老板的强硬立场。
• If you fall asleep while driving,you'll probably veer off the road.假如你开车时打瞌睡，可能会驶离道路。

11 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

12 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

13 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

14 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

15 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

16 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

17 escalate   

v.(使)逐步增长(或发展)，(使)逐步升级

参考例句：

• It would tempt Israel's neighbors to escalate their demands.它将诱使以色列的邻国不断把他们的要求升级。
• Defeat could cause one side or other to escalate the conflict.失败可能会导致其中一方将冲突升级。

18 cathartic   

adj.宣泄情绪的；n.泻剂

参考例句：

• His laughter was cathartic,an animal yelp that brought tears to his eyes.他哈哈大笑以宣泄情绪，声音如野兽般尖厉，眼泪都笑出来了。
• The drug had a cathartic effect.这药有导泻的作用。