Maybe we'll make it : a memoir

Maybe we'll make it A memoir

Margo Price, 1983-

Book - 2022

"Margo Price is from Aledo, in western Illinois; she's a Midwest farmer's daughter who moves to Nashville to become a musician. She waits tables, busks on the street, plays open mics, and talks to her uncle, Bob Fischer, a songwriter for dozens of country music legends. Uncle Bob's advice is to throw away her TV and do nothing but write. So, discouraged but determined, she does. Price writes constantly, but she's also trying to meet industry people (who try to take advantage of her), partying/self-destructing, and falling in love with her now husband, Jeremy Ivey, also a musician. It's a life a lot of aspiring musicians can relate to, and it is rendered here in an honest, down-to-earth voice. Price and Ivey wor...k on their craft, and eventually, they marry and become pregnant. Some of the most vivid scenes in the book describe the loss of one of their boys, Ezra, who was born with a fatal heart condition. Price is devastated and starts a period of intense self-destruction. She takes refuge in old-school country music and begins writing in the same vein. One night, performing these new songs, she realizes this is the honest music she needs to make. Price pawns her wedding ring to help fund a demo, and the music draws interest from several major labels but ultimately they all pass, wanting her to sing happier, or more modern, versions of her songs. Her last invitation is from Third Man Records, and they sign her. About six months later, in April 2016, she and the Price Tags play Saturday Night Live. They made it, at last"--

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Subjects
Price, Margo, > 1983-
Singers > United States > Biography.
Country musicians > United States > Biography.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Autobiographies
Published
Austin : University of Texas Press 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Margo Price, 1983- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
271 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9781477323502
  • Prologue
  • Chapter 1. The Unpaved Road
  • Chapter 2. Rearview Mirror
  • Chapter 3. Fifty-Seven Dollars
  • Chapter 4. Strays
  • Chapter 5. Lay Around with the Dogs
  • Chapter 6. This Town Gees Around (and Around and Around)
  • Chapter 7. Black Water
  • Chapter 8. Stealing from Thieves
  • Chapter 9. Floating
  • Chapter 10. Pearls to Swine
  • Chapter 11. Hell in the Heartland
  • Chapter 12. Everywhere
  • Chapter 13. Mesa Boogie
  • Chapter 14. C for California
  • Chapter 15. Aimless Face
  • Chapter 16. Ball and Unchained
  • Chapter 17. New Mama
  • Chapter 18. Ezra and Judah
  • Chapter 19. Drowning
  • Chapter 20. Uppers, Downers, Out-of-Towners
  • Chapter 21. Burn Whatever's Left
  • Chapter 22. Treading Water
  • Chapter 23. Weekender
  • Chapter 24. A Band of My Own
  • Chapter 25. Midwest Farmer's Daughter
  • Chapter 26. One Dark Horse
  • Chapter 27. The Recent Future
  • Epilogue
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Grammy-nominated musician Price chronicles in her dazzling debut her hardscrabble path through addiction, poverty, and loss on the way to becoming a successful recording artist. Born in 1983 in Aledo, Ill., Price displayed a talent for music early on (her mother and grandmother, she writes, "insist I sounded like a full-grown woman when I sang, despite being only nine years old"), and though she excelled in the school choir, verbal and physical abuse from schoolmates led her to drinking and an eating disorder to escape the despair and loneliness. Eventually finding solace in journal writing and playing guitar, Price dropped out of college and moved to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams. But as she reveals in spare and affecting prose, pursuing success came at a cost: surviving near poverty and working a series of menial jobs, she began an arduous 11-year climb up the musical ladder through open mic nights, nightclub gigs, and cross-country tours. After losing a baby to a heart defect in 2010, Price resolved to confront her addictions and poured her heartache into her songs, landing a recording deal with Third Man Records ("my dark horse") and an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Told with moving candor, Price's tale of overcoming squalor and pain provides powerful emotional context to her hard-won country music stardom. Fans will adore this story of survival. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

American country singer/songwriter Price's memoir is as intensely personal and heartbreakingly honest as her songs. She reveals many details, ranging from a rocky childhood growing up in a family scarred by alcoholism and a proclivity for wild behavior, to meeting the love of her life and living in poverty as they navigated the Nashville music world together. She expands on the narratives told in her songs and draws readers in with her exquisite storytelling abilities and profound specifics. She finds the humor in her often-precarious living situation and career (including her invention of a fake "manager" who gets her gigs where she had previously been ignored). She is forthright about her personal struggles (eating disorders, drug use, adultery) and the tragic loss of her first son. Her development as an artist is told through her lyrics, which steadfastly remained autobiographical during her years of struggling, despite recommendations to be more mainstream. Her breakthrough happens when she fully embraced a country style. VERDICT Grammy-nominated for Best New Artist in 2018, Price's star is on the rise, and her relatable stories will have widespread appeal.--Lisa Henry

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A Grammy-nominated musician chronicles her long struggle to make it as a musician while refusing to sacrifice her artistic integrity. "I picked up the shattered pieces and started again," writes Price (b. 1983) after chronicling yet another moment of crushing defeat on her journey to a successful career. This determination to persevere after a major setback--whether it was another blow from her struggle against addiction or a disappointing run-in with an industry insider--is a recurring theme in this engaging and beautifully narrated quest for personal fulfillment and musical recognition. The author takes us from her humble beginnings in Aledo, Illinois (pop. 3,600), to the stage of Saturday Night Live and details all of the gigs, concerts, campfire jam sessions, dive-bar escapades, love affairs, struggles with alcohol and drugs, grief, and heartache in between. Through all the highs and lows, Price has remained loyal to her craft, refusing to compromise her artistry despite industry pressure to conform. Like many great artists, she is able to transform her most challenging experiences into art, and she grants readers deep insight into the stories behind some of her most powerful songs. This is a fast-paced tale in which music and love always take center stage. In Price's world, her talent takes precedence over commercial success, and people are far more important than material possessions. "Looking back, there was a romanticism in knowing that we might be failures but we were talented failures in a business that championed mediocrity," writes the author. "Even in the lonely shadows of the burning spotlight, beyond the endless roads to the sprawling cities and trash towns, between the empty gas tank and the underattended gigs, we were spreading the true gospel of meaning-ful music and the lost art of poetry and songs. We would not sell out." A truly gifted musician, Price writes about her journey with refreshing candor. A brutally honest and at times heart-wrenching account of one musician's struggle to make it in a challenging industry. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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