Margo Price’s “Hands of Time” Music Video Is a Love Letter to Aledo, Illinois

Margo Price seemed to have come out of nowhere earlier this year with her fully formed retro-sounding album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. Released on March 25 by Third Man Records—rocker Jack White’s label—the album reached the Top 10 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and is highly regarded by music critics and fans of a more traditional country sound.

Throughout the year, Margo could be seen performing on the The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and other late night TV shows, including Saturday Night Live. In September, Margo was named the New/Emerging Artist of the Year at the Americana Music Awards. The week after that she performed “Two More Bottles of Wine” with the legendary Emmylou Harris as well as her own set at Skyville LiveIn October, she was included in CMT’s 2016 Next Women of Country—a campaign to bring awareness to inspiring female vocalists in country music.

Margo Price performs with Emmylou Harris at Skyville Live
Margo Price performs with Emmylou Harris at Skyville Live

To create her latest music video for “Hands of Time,” Margo went back to Aledo, Ill., the Midwest town where she went to high school. Some folks might think Aledo meets the criteria for being considered “nowhere,”  but this very personal video suggests it is a special somewhere for Margo and her family.

According to Margo, the music video was shot “entirely on 16 millimeter film.” The use of a film camera certainly explains why the whole thing looks like a long-lost documentary from the ’70s or ’80s, with fuzzy footage of Margo, her husband and son around town, at a rodeo, a carnival and out amidst livestock and farmland in the Illinois countryside.

The picturesque rural and small town scenes—combined with the film grain and hand-held camera movement employed throughout the video—manage to avoid seeming like a gimmick. In fact, it looks and feels very authentic and crafted, much like Margo’s music. Check it out.

https://youtu.be/Ev4eFLpWFBk

Skyville Live photo by Jason Simanek

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