Margo Price returned from on high on Thursday with her latest single, “Been To The Mountain”. The standalone track marks Price’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2020 album, That’s How Rumors Get Started, and drops some hints as to where she might go next stylistically.
“Been To The Mountain” is not your average Margo Price song. The 39-year-old singer-songwriter is a long way from the Midwest Farmer’s Daughter as she relives all of her traumas and triumphs set to a persistent guitar loop: “Used to be a lover, queen and a drifter / A cowboy devil, a bride and a boxer … // I’ve been on food stamps, I’ve been out of my mind / I’m rolled in dirty dollars, stood in the welfare line.”
The alternative country darling made waves with her rock n’ roll bent on her last album, and if “Been To The Mountain” is any indication, she may stay on that path. The song’s music video embodies this dilemma as Price uses a psychedelic experience to look back on all of her past lives and considers her future.
“‘Been To The Mountain’ is part one of an introspective trip into our subconscious. It is the perfect continuation of my search for freedom in my art and freedom in the modern age,” Price said. “I have a lot of high hopes for this next chapter and truly believe this is the most exciting music I’ve ever made in the studio with my band. We have all grown so much, we operate like one single organism—it’s telepathic. Courtney Hoffman brought my wild visions to life with the help of an incredible cast and crew in the music video. I wanted the story’s hypothetical 8-to-12-hour window to feel like a mini-lifetime. We also wanted to portray how an intense psychedelic experience has the potential to become a spiritual experience, and how that can change your perception of the world around you.”
Along with the single, Price on Thursday launched a new podcast, Runaway Horses. Premiering exclusively through Sonos Radio before it becomes available across streaming platforms, the interview series will feature conversations between Price and other artists who broke the mold and followed their own paths. The series premieres with guest Emmylou Harris, with new episodes premiering weekly for the next five Thursdays hosting talks with Bob Weir, Swamp Dogg, Amythyst Kiah, Bettye LaVette, and Lucius.
“The thing about runaway horses is that you can really never truly break them. They are incredibly unpredictable. You never know what they’re going to do next,” Price said of the podcast that began as an internet radio program during COVID-19 lockdowns. “I’m calling this show Runaway Horses because wild freedom is exactly what I crave from music—I just want a complete and total release. I hope that the conversations on this show help you feel a sense of freedom, too.”
Check out the music video for Margo Price’s new single, “Been To The Mountain”, and stream the first episode of Runaway Horses on Sonos Radio.
Margo Price – “Been To The Mountain” (Official Video)
Runaway Horses – Fearless (ft. Emmylou Harris)