See Margo Price’s Dark-Humored DUI Ballad ‘It Ain’t Drunk Driving’
On her Twitter account, Margo Price identifies herself as “songbird, thunderbird, jailbird.” And at least two of those are true: during a dark period in her past, Price did a weekend in jail after getting pulled over following a night of heavy boozing. The Illinois-born singer-songwriter documents the experience in the song “Weekender.” “I felt like when I ended up in jail, that was God’s answer: ‘Now you are in a loony bin.’ I’ve kept it from a lot of my family. I don’t know if my sister knows. They’ll know when the album comes out,” she told Rolling Stone in March prior to the release of her debut album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter.
It makes sense then that she’d identify with another tale of driving while intoxicated, the darker-than-its-title-would-imply “It Ain’t Drunk Driving If You’re Riding a Horse.” Price says the song was written by her friend Steven Knudson, and she hopes to record it for her next album. In this live clip, she sings the track with just guitar and accordion accompaniment during an appearance at the Rough Trade record store in London.
Price is currently on the road and will play Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic this weekend in Austin, along with a string of festival dates in September, including Bumbershoot, Farm Aid and the Austin City Limits Music Festival.