Margo Price at Scala

Margo Price
Andrew Combs
Scala, 1 September 2016

I've seen Andrew Combs before supporting Caitlin Rose, which makes sense because one of the songs on Margo Price's superb debut album is co-written by Rose so I suppose they are part of the same group of singer-songwriting friends in Nashville. Combs, like before, stands alone with his acoustic guitar and the obligatory Nashville attire of blue jeans and cowboy shirt. He's smaller than I remember but just as baby-faced which contrasts with the world-weary gravel in his voice. I think I said this before but he reminds me a lot of Ryan Adams in his more stripped down, lonesome moments and the crowd responds well to his earthy, country style, in fact he even plays a song (Too Stoned To Cry) because someone requested it "on the way to the bathroom".
He's charming throughout, speaking to the audience and, despite his jet lag, seems genuinely glad to be here in this old London cinema. He ends the set with a song he says is about watching a girl through a window, he pauses then admits "it sounds creepy but it's my girlfriend's favourite song, which says a lot about our relationship". I'm not surprised it's her favourite on his songs because it's one of the loveliest moments of his set. I can't imagine Combs ever setting the country world on fire but he's definitely a fine singer-songwriter.

After discovering her album just a little too late, I was kicking myself earlier this year when I missed her Bush Hall show so I was thrilled when she announced her return to London at the slightly larger, but still intimate Scala. Amazingly, it's said that 30 record labels turned down Price's debut album before Jack White heroically came to the rescue making Midwest Farmer's Daughter, Third Man Record's first ever country release. It was a wise move because it's one of the best albums of 2016 and Price is like an old-time country star come back to life, with real life hard luck stories and full of Loretta Lynn-style charm. It goes without saying that I absolutely love her.

When she walks on stage wearing a little tiered chiffon skirt and cowboy boots she looks cute as a button and already I love her more. Of course it helps that she and her band the Pricetags start with a storming version of Billy Grammer's Gotta Travel On. I feel like I've been transported to the Grand Ole Opry. It's twanging but it's rocking and it's full of groove and attitude. At this point she really reminds me of one of my heroes, the amazing Bobbie Gentry, at her guttiest and the song itself sounds like it could of come straight off her new record.

Tonight she tells us that she isn't playing guitar as per usual as her hand is still recovering from shutting it in a car door but you wouldn't know that she is usually behind a guitar as she seems a natural with a microphone in her hand too. She then puts on an incredible show, playing every song from her album and mixing it with some brilliantly chosen covers. I really couldn't have asked for more with this show.  Desperate And Depressed she tells us was written after a terrible tour in Florida where the band ended up playing some dive and Weekender is about her brief time as a jailbird (consisting, as the title suggests, over one weekend). These are story songs at their country best but the best one of them all comes a quarter of the way in. When I first heard Hands Of Time I thought it was just emulating the great tragic country tales but it turns out the lyrics concerning losing a family farm, losing a son and turning to the bottle, is all absolutely true and all happened to Price. The song itself is a wonder, full of beauty and emotion, and sung with so much feeling I feel tears coming to my eyes. Now that is something special indeed.

Midway through she gives the band a break, only her guitar-playing husband remaining and they give a rare outing (she says) of World's Greatest Loser and an impromptu cover of Bob Dylan's You Ain't Going Nowhere, with the couple singing while staring tenderly into each others' eyes.

There's lots of other amazing covers tonight too including the Levon Helm track Poor Dirt Farmer with the band harmonising together around Margo's microphone; the George Jones song Heartaches & Hangovers (if she hadn't won me over already this alone would have sealed the deal); Loretta Lynn's classic Rated X which of course fits her like a glove and later in the encore Neil Young's Old Ways and Gram Parsons' Ooh Las Vegas (seriously though, be still my heart with those choices).

Her own songs hold up completely among all these classic tunes in particular the upbeat and stomping Tennessee Song is impossible not to dance to, while her tales of living in Nashville This Town Gets Around is full of attitude. The main show ends on the raucous Hurtin' (On The Bottle), which sounds like a future country classic.

Of course the crowd demands more and they return full of smiles, but the lighting man must have taken a break and they start playing Old Ways completely in the dark until one by one each member of the audience turns on the torch on their phones, lighting up the stage. It's all kind of magical and wonderful, which perfectly sums up this show altogether really. I also managed to nab the set list, which is slightly different to the set actually played, and it was rather nice that the band's guitarist gave it to me rather than to one of the slew of male hands reaching out for it.