American Music Prize Winner Margo Price to appear at St. Cecilia Music Center

St. Cecilia Music Center will bring rising star Nashville singer Margo Price to Grand Rapids on Thursday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. Margo Price has been taking the country music scene by storm with her debut album “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter.” This month Price became the winner of the 2017 American Music Prize ($25,000) that recognizes the year's best debut album. She won the award for her newest release “Hands of Time.”  She is also winner of the 2016 Best County Album by Nashville Scene and was named Emerging Artist of the Year by the American Music Association.

According to media reports, Price was surprised with the news of her American Music Prize win on March 7. Friends, family and employees from her record label, Third Man Records, surprised the singer-songwriter with the news at Third Man’s Blue Room in Nashville - she was told that she needed to be there for a business meeting.

According to a report from The Boot, the top source for the latest country music news, videos, songs, interviews and live performances from country's biggest stars, and an interview by the Tennessean, Price said, “I’m really speechless right now. I wasn’t expecting this at all, and that’s maybe what makes it so sweet, I kept asking, ‘Am I in trouble? Do you think I did something wrong? [My husband’s] like, ‘No, it’s fine. We’re going to go get a nice dinner.’ He even told me to change my dress, that it wasn’t nice enough!”

Price’s Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, released in March of 2016, beat out about 250 other debut albums to win the 2017 American Music Prize, which “aims to encourage, discover, reward and promote new music of excellence by USA artists,” according to the Prize’s official website. Twelve finalists, from all different genres, were announced in February.

Before signing with Third Man Records, Price sold her car and pawned her wedding ring to help pay to record Midwest Farmer’s Daughter at Memphis’ legendary Sun Studio; the 10-track record was influenced by Price’s years of trying to “make it” in Nashville, the childhood memories of her family losing their farm in Illinois and the pain of trying to cope with the death of her first child. After recording the album, Price shopped the project around in Nashville but found no takers until connecting with Jack White‘s Third Man Records; she’s now the label’s lone country artist.

St. Cecilia Music Center Executive Director Cathy Holbrook, says, “We are so lucky to have Margo Price performing here in Grand Rapids at this stage in her career. She’s a rising star who is moving very fast in the music spotlight. This concert will be one that the audience will say, ‘I saw Margo Price when she was new and rising on the scene.”

Concert tickets are $20 and $25 and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at www.scmc-online.org.  A post-concert “Meet-the-artist” reception with a cash bar will be offered to all ticket-holders giving the audience the opportunity to meet Margo Price and her band and obtain signed CDs of her award winning newest release.

More about Margo Price can be found on her website at margoprice.net or at paradigmagency.com/divisions/artist/index/2962.

The Acoustic Café Series

Two years ago began a new partnership with the syndicated radio show Acoustic Café and its host Rob Reinhart. Acoustic Café, the Ann Arbor based radio program hosted by Reinhart is syndicated to over 100 commercial and non-commercial stations throughout the country and airs locally in Grand Rapids on WYCE on Friday mornings. The Acoustic Café Series at SCMC features touring singer/songwriter folk/Americana musicians in concert and also presents the opportunity for a live taping with the artists while visiting SCMC.

“This exciting partnership with Acoustic Café and Rob Reinhart garners national attention for SCMC as a venue,” said Cathy Holbrook, Executive Director of St. Cecilia Music Center. “I am thrilled to work with Rob Reinhart on this series. His vast knowledge of music opens up many opportunities to bring artists to Grand Rapids while also shining a spotlight on St. Cecilia Music Center and Grand Rapids through his taped interviews with the artists who appear on the series.”

Rob Reinhart of Acoustic Café comments, “We’ve been exploring different opportunities to present artists in unique settings, so we couldn’t be happier about showcasing artists in this beautiful, newly renovated historic venue. Grand Rapids was one of the very first markets to broadcast Acoustic Café 20 years ago, and we are pleased to be presenting live music there, while also telling the world about St. Cecilia Music Center.”