Margo Price Surprise Releases Protest Album Days of Unrest

Margo Price is celebrating July 4 weekend in typically righteous fashion, surprise releasing a protest album—or mixtape, per a press release—comprising a series of covers and a few originals. Among them are a new recording of her cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” now featuring Joan Baez and Memphis Mariachi. Watch its video, which highlights the plight of migrant workers under the Trump regime, below.

Price said in a press release, “I’ve been singing ‘Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)’ for a couple decades now, so it’s only fitting that I would cover it on Days of Unrest. I first heard it when I was watching Joan Baez and Bob Dylan sing it on The Rolling Thunder Review. Joan Baez has inspired me beyond words, so to have her voice on this recording feels surreal. I’ve taken cues from her career both musically and as I’ve moved into the role of ‘cultural worker.’”

Produced by Matt Ross-Spang, the album includes takes on Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” and, with guest Billy Swan, Charlie Daniels’ “Long Haired Country Girl.” There is also a cover of Blaze Foley’s “Oval Room,” of which Price added, “He wrote the song about another famous movie star turned politician—President Ronald Reagan—back in 1984, but it feels like it could have been written for any president, especially Trump. The system has always been set up to keep the rich in power and divide the people. Covering this song, as well as the other tracks on Days of Unrest, is how I protest. I’m showing up at the Capitol too, I’m marching beside my brothers Representative Justin Jones & Representative Pearson, but singing this in my live shows has felt cathartic for me and I think it has for my fans too.”

The originals on the album are “Can’t Stand Still”—which dates back to her early Nashville band Buffalo Clover—and the three-part instrumental suite of “San Marcos” songs, written with her partner Jeremy Ivey and recorded with the Price Tags. The album will also be released on vinyl, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project.