There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.
A House with Four Rooms (1989)
Use the links below to visit the website of British author RUMER GODDEN (1907–1998) and read a short review of A House with Four Rooms, Volume Two of her memoirs, posted on the literary blog Leaves & Pages:
…If this civilisation of ours is to be saved it can only be saved by a change of heart in the whole population of the globe. Neither improvements in machines nor the jugglings of economists can do it. To have a living civilisation we must have civilised hearts. I don't mean to say that it is a very good chance. But it is the only one. And it is a change that can only be brought about convinced worlds by the artist –– by the thinker who has evolved living words that will convince… And every real artist in words who deserts the occupation of pure imaginative writing to immerse himself in the Public Affairs that have ruined our world, takes away a little of our chance of coming alive through these lugubrious times. And when it is a very real artist with a great hold on the people, it is by so much more a pity…
Portraits From Life (1937)
Use the link below to visit THE FORD MADOX FORD SOCIETY, an international organization founded in 1997 'to promote knowledge of and interest in the life and works of Ford Madox Ford':
When I rolled out of town on the unpaved road
I was fifty-seven dollars from being broke
Kissed my mama and my sisters and I said goodbye
And with my suitcase packed I wiped the tears from my eyes
Times they were tough growing up at home
My daddy lost the farm when I was two years old
Took a job at the prison working second shift
And that’s the last time I let them take what should be his
Cause all I want to do is make a little cash
Cause I worked all the bad jobs bustin' my ass
I want to buy back the farm
And bring my mama home some wine
And turn back the clock on the cruel hands of time
When I hit the city I joined the band
Started singing in the bars and running with the men
But the men they brought me problems
And the drinking caused me grief
I thought I'd found a friend but I only found a thief
Soon I settled down with a married man
We had a couple babies, started living off the land
But my firstborn died and I cried out to God
Is there anybody out there looking down on me at all?
Cause all I want to do is make something last
But I can't see the future, I can't change the past
I want to buy back the farm
And bring my mama home some wine
Turn back the clock on the cruel hands of time
Still I keep a-running fast as I can
Trying to make something honest with my own two hands
And I ain't got the breath to say another bad word
So if I ever said it wrong won't you forget what you heard
Cause all I want to do is make my own path
Cause I know what I am, I know what I have
I want to buy back the farm
And bring my mama home some wine
Turn back the clock on the cruel hands of time The cruel hands of time
The following biography by is taken from the Third Man Records website. [It is re-posted here for recommendation purposes only and, like the material displayed above, remains the company's exclusive copyright-protected intellectual property.]
It only takes Margo Price about twenty-eight seconds to convince you that you're hearing the arrival of a singular new talent. Hands of Time, the opener on Midwest Farmer's Daughter (released in March 2016 on Third Man Records), is an invitation, a mission statement and a starkly poetic summary of the 32-year old singer's life, all in one knockout, self-penned punch: 'When I rolled out of town on the unpaved road, I was fifty-seven dollars from bein' broke…'
Throughout Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, Price recalls hardships and heartaches – the loss of her family's farm, the death of her child, problems with men and the bottle. Her voice has that alluring mix of vulnerability and resilience that was once the province of Loretta and Dolly. It is a tour-de-force performance that is vivid, deeply moving and all true.
From the honky tonk comeuppance of About To Find Out, to the rockabilly-charged This Town Gets Around to the weekend twang of Hurtin' (On The Bottle), Price adds fresh twists to classic Nashville country, with a sound that could’ve made hits in any decade. Meanwhile, the hard-hitting blues grooves of Four Years of Chances and Tennessee Song push the boundaries further west to Memphis (the album was recorded at Sun Studio).
Price grew up in Aledo, Illinois (pop 3,612), and after dropping out of college, she moved to Nashville in 2003. She soon met bass player – and future husband – Jeremy Ivey, and formed a band called Buffalo Clover. They self-released three records and built a local following, but it was personal tragedy that brought Price’s calling into even sharper focus. 'I lost my firstborn son to a heart ailment,' Price says, 'and I was really down and depressed. I was drinking too much. I was definitely lost. I did some things that I regret very much now that resulted in a brush with the law. Thank God I had my friends and family to keep me going. Coming through that, I thought, "I'm just going to write music that I want to hear." It was a big turning point.'
After recording the album with her band at Sun Studio and shopping it to a number of Nashville labels, Price reached another critical career moment when a friend brought up Third Man Records and told her, 'You're on Jack's radar, he wants to hear the record.' Price says, 'I sent it over, and it just felt like home. A good creative space to be involved in, and everyone is so down to earth. It was awesome when I met with Jack. He told me he thought my voice was a breath of fresh air, and that he loved the record.'
As Price looks ahead to a busy 2016, full of touring and promoting Midwest Farmer's Daughter, she reflects on her hopes for what listeners might get from these songs. 'I hope that the record helps people get through hard times or depression. That's ultimately what music did for me in my childhood, and especially in my early adult years. It's about being able to connect personally with a song, and hopefully, it makes you feel not so lonely.'
Margo Price is an artist who makes music in the best country tradition –– honest, uncompromising, passionate and unafraid to express what are sometimes some very dark emotions. A song like Hands of Time–– unapologetically autobiographicaland a sad reminder of how lowNashville has sunk since it turned its back on artists with something unique and interesting to say in favor ofchurning out generic tweeny pop by the bucketful–– demonstrates why people keep performing and relating tograssroots country music despite the pundits telling us, time and time again, that there's 'no marketfor it' in the Snapchat age.
Country music is to white people what the blues used to be black people (that is, before hip-hopreplaced it as the music of choice for the disenfranchised young)–– a way to communicate emotion, simply and directly, using plain language and minimal accompaniment. Time and technology march on. The truth, on the other hand, never stops being the truth and will hopefully never stop being expressed by songwriters who have more on their minds than cranking out the next formulaic, over-hyped'hit' for an audience that wouldn't know a steel guitar from a synthesizer if its life depended on it.
Use the link below to visit the MARGO PRICE page at the Third Man Records website:
Behind me there are mountains of mistakes, tons of paper covered with writing, an Academy prize and a life of sudden success…yet in spite of all this, I don’t believe there is a single line I’ve written that has real literary value. I long to hide somewhere for five years or so and do a piece of painstaking, serious work. I must study, learn everything from the beginning, for as a writer I am completely ignorant.
From a letter written to a friend written in 1889
Use the link below to read more about the life and work of acclaimed Russian playwright, short story writer and novelist ANTON CHEKHOV (1860–1904). According to his translator ELISAVETA FEN '…1889 was the happiest year of his career as a writer.'
