Margo Price Releases Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman

In May 2018, Margo Price got a well-deserved hero's welcome at the Mother Church of Country Music. Following the release of her second LP All American Made, the country-schooled champion songwriter and bandleader played a three-night stand with heaps of great guests, both in support slots and during her sets. 

Her third album That's How Rumors Get Started has been on hold. The measures necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 have thrown the world in general and Price's industry in particular into chaos, and the illness itself has hit close to home — Price's husband and fellow musician Jeremy Ivey caught the disease and recovered, but their friend and mentor John Prine died from complications of it. All the same, Price is doing what she can to make a difference, and that includes releasing a live album featuring tracks recorded during that Ryman run.

Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman is an 11-track Bandcamp exclusive, recorded and mixed by Price's longtime touring engineer Evan P. Donohue. In addition to her topflight band, a string trio and a chorus of harmony singers, she's joined by three special guests: Emmylou Harris on Price's "Wild Women," Sturgill Simpson (who co-produced Price's forthcoming album) on Waylon Jennings' "Ain't Livin' Long Like This" and Jack White on The White Stripes' "Honey, We Can't Afford to Look This Cheap."

Take a listen and click through below to buy a copy. All proceeds are going to MusiCares' COVID-19 relief fund, an effort organized by the health-care-focused nonprofit to help musicians who are unable to work during the pandemic. Also below, check out a video filmed during the run, in which Price gives a solo piano performance (joined later by Ivey on harmonica and then by the chorus) of "All American Made." The poignant ballad is about looking bad times in the face and believing in the resilient spirit of those around you — something that feels even more important now than when All American Made was first released.