Not Listening to Music

Let’s kick things off with the amazing ‘playing along’ podcast hosted by Norah Jones. In the episode below she chats to Margo Price, and I have a reason for selecting this one. Margo is not all that well-known in the UK, and I spent last summer following her release sequence for Hard Headed Woman, which has since picked up a Grammy nomination.

This makes Price the only female to be nominated in the category of Best Traditional Country Album, which speaks volumes about the industry and the structure of the awards but also (and most importantly of all) speaks to Margo’s stand-out brilliance. BTW Norah Jones’ brilliance is so obvious I won’t mention it.

Also strongly recommended is the audiobook, not the actual book, of Margo’s 2022 memoir (Maybe) We’ll Make It. The reason for singling out the audiobook is that Margo reads it herself and includes songs from through the years. This is an example of what audiobooks should be, taking them far beyond the printed word. Margo has had some severe knocks in life and hearing her talk about those in her own voice is very powerful. She is also based in Tennessee and tends to record her albums at Southern Grooves in Memphis. I will be reviewing the book in a future post.

Substack itself has sprung to life for music fans in the last twelve months. In addition to Cyrena Wages, of which more below, you can find Margo Price, Anna Vaus, Lola Kirke, Bre Kennedy, Zoee… the list is growing by the week.

And finally for Lola fans (who isn’t?) she has her own audiobook which you can sample below. The paperback is out in March. I partially reviewed the hardback last year, see below. If you prefer Jemima then she features heavily in the anecdotes. Lola had a pivotal role in the record-breaking movie Sinners and will appear soon in a siege drama based on a true story, Eleven Days.