Following the success of her 2023 album Strays, Margo Price has returned with a new single featuring vocals and guitar from Billy Strings. Titled “Too Stoned to Cry,” the track leads with the gentle twang of pedal steel, which establishes an intended wave of pure vintage-drenched country, found not just in the instrumentals but also the tone of musicians’ timbre as they let their surroundings and experiences seep into their towering output–which might as well be considered another brawny chapter in country music’s 2024 resurgence. 

After months of country zeal, “Too Stoned to Cry” captures the organics of Price and Strings’ talents, the natural emergence of Southern experience culled through the  Andrew Combs-penned lyrics, which generate a 1960s dreamscape: the slow trot of a horseback journey, trailed by rising blooms of smoke circles. Reflective by nature, the track projects the feeling of a lonesome cowboy tune, lingering emotions that even a toked numbing effect can’t fix. 

Offering history on the single, Price said: “It was such a joy to work with Billy on this song. He really nailed the vocals and laid down a beautiful lead. I have wanted to record this song for years now, ever since I heard the writer Andrew Combs sing it. My buddy Beau Bedford and I had been in the studio together working on an Orville Peck track, and I asked him to produce this single for me. He put together a really great band – Beau and I, plus my husband Jeremy Ivey played acoustic, Aksel Coe on drums, Misa Arriaga on Bass, Russ Pahl on pedal steel, Joey McClellan on electric. Once we got Billy to add his guitar and singing, I knew this song was gonna be a special recording.”

“Too Stoned to Cry” arrives prior to Price’s forthcoming appearance at Americana Fest and Farm Aid, in addition to celebrations that honor Robbie Robertson and Mavis Staples. As part of her continued journey, today’s release lends itself to the artist’s intent to unleash a fresh capture, a notion touched on via further comments, “When I first came on the scene, I was a countryfied, hard headed, whiskey drinkin nobody who was pissed off at the establishment. All of that’s still true, except for the whiskey drinkin part.” 

Price concluded, “If anything, now that I’ve lived for a while inside of the establishment, I’m even more pissed off. I’ve let some people go, I’m still fighting with others to let me be myself, but I know, I’m gonna make this next record the way I want to make it, no matter what it takes.” 

Scroll down to listen to “Too Stoned to Cry.”