If you prefer that the musical artists you like just shut up and sing, you might want to skip Margo Price’s new album. She has opinions. And on Days of Unrest, she is not shy about sharing them.
The country singer dropped her seventh solo album one day before the 4th of July. It was a surprise release, coming on the heels of her sensational Hard Headed Woman last year. Clocking in just under 30 minutes, Days of Unrest officially contains nine tracks.
However, three of them are part of the same instrumental suite – San Marcos. Those three sections, built on a simple Mexican motif with guitar, tambourine, and pedal steel, act as vague chapter markings. They also provide a lovely melodic setting, reminiscent of John Prine’s “Day is Done.” Price has always looked to Prine as a songwriter to emulate.
Margo Price’s new album relies on songwriting legends to talk about today
One of the other tracks is “Can’t Stand Still,” an old Buffalo Clover song. That was the name of Price’s eclectic rocking band fifteen years ago, formed with partner Jeremy Ivey, before Price launched her solo career. The new version provides a fuller sound than the rockabilly original from 2011. But the message is the same. Opening with the observation
“Well, women ain’t supposed to ramble
Women ain’t supposed to think…”
Price makes it clear she is going to do both.
The remainder of the new album – five tracks in all – comes out of the past. They are all covers of songs written decades ago. For the most part, they are protest songs, and it sounds as if Price has chosen them because each speaks to a situation that is no less important in 2026 than when each song was originally released.
However, before launching into that protest, Price offers another song of pure joy – a cover of “De Colores,” celebrating the beauty of nature that you may recognize from its usage in children’s TV shows over the years. Price is backed by Memphis Mariachi on the lovely paean.
That joy sets up the first of the album’s gut punches. Memphis Mariachi stays on hand, lending a similar upbeat sheen to “Deportee.” Only this time, the effect is opposed. “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” was originally written as a poem by Woody Guthrie in 1948.
It was in memory of the 28 migrant workers who perished in a plane crash while returning to their homeland after completing their seasonal work. Guthrie notes that none were identified by name in media accounts of the tragedy. They were simply labeled “deportees.”
Ten years later, Martin Hoffman wrote a melody for the poem, and it became an immediate classic. Pete Seeger began singing it. Joan Baez began singing it. That melody is so infectious that I have heard listeners, hearing it for the very first time, begin singing along by the second verse.
Price scores a coup by having Baez join her on the song. The results are simply staggering. Some of the greatest American folk artists of the 20th century are being reintroduced at a crucial moment in the 21st century.
Price then completes a powerhouse double punch, serving up Blaze Foley’s “Oval Room.” That song was written by the plain-spoken genius Foley about Ronald Reagan, and it pointed out the growing wealth imbalance in the country that was threatening to turn the American president into a king in the 1980s.
I’ll leave it to you to determine whether that message has new relevance in 2026.
Those two songs are overt political protest numbers about particular situations. After the midpoint “San Marcos” break, Price returns with a couple of songs asserting personal freedom.
This time, she turns to the disparate voices of Charlie Daniels and Bob Dylan. “Long Haired Country Girl” recasts Daniels’ original about a stoner who makes no demands on society other than to be left alone to live her own life.
And “Maggie’s Farm,” initially released on Dylan’s revolutionary Bringing It All Back Home in 1965, gets a brief gospel-tinged intro before diving into the righteous anger against an economic system rife with hypocrisy and cruelty.
Some proceeds from Days of Unrest will be donated to the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Program, a longstanding organization in Arizona that has been helping the underserved for many decades.
Price’s surprise album is the latest in a growing protest movement spearheaded by a segment of the recording industry. We have noted Steve Earle’s rerelease of his song “City of Immigrants” and Adam Brodsky’s protest album American Epitaph in previous stories. Tom Morello brings his one-day Power to the People Festival to Merriweather Post Pavilion in October.
These artists have something to say. And few say it better – with more energy and melody – than Margo Price.
Add us as a preferred source on Google