Margo Price shares new single "Lydia"

"Lydia" will appear on Price's Strays album with earlier singles "Change of Heart" and "Been To The Mountain", and lands with a live performance video shot at Nashville's Downtown Presbyterian Church.

"I wrote "Lydia" in one sitting in a tiny hotel room after walking around the city of Vancouver one day," Price explains. "I was jet lagged and feeling really depressed, hopeless, but instead of taking a nap, I picked up the guitar and the words just flowed out all in one quick moment. I hit record on my phone to make a demo and sort of blacked out or went into this meditative state, and boom – eight minutes later, I had this song. It’s one of the only songs I’ve ever written that doesn’t have any real melody or even rhyme, but somehow it still works. Songs like that are rare and don’t come often."

She continues, "It was inspired by a cacophony of things. There was a women’s health clinic and a methadone clinic with a needle exchange right outside of our venue. I was looking into the eyes of the people I passed and thinking about their stories and really being a conduit for pain."

"The song feels like a premonition now, with women’s rights being stripped and all the abortion bans happening," Price adds. "When I listen back, I hear what might go through a woman’s mind when she has a difficult decision to make about her body, her choices and her future."

Strays will follow Price's 2020 album That’s How Rumors Get Started, and is produced by Price alongside Jonathan Wilson. The majority of the new album was recorded across the space of a week at Fivestar Studio in Topanga Canyon, California in summer 2021. Strays will also feature additional vocals from Sharon Van Etten, Mike Campbell and Lucius.