Margot Price has reimagined her song “I’d Die For You” with a new “synthphonic” sound, with the track released alongside an accompanying music video, which had been directed by Casey Pierce and edited Becky Fluke. The song was initially released with her recent album, That’s How Rumors Get Started, and sees Price highlighting social injustice, commenting violence, racism and healthcare crises in the United States.

While the original version of the track included twanging electric guitars and Price’s bouncing country sound, “I’d Die For You” takes on a more heartbreaking sound with string instruments and deep tones of the piano as she belts the emotional lyrics. Price recorded the new strings for the song remotely, with Micah Hulscher writing the part for the piano as Larissa Maestro wrote the strings.

Price dons a floral white veil and stands in front of a vibrant wall of flowers. Imagery of the Statue of Liberty, protests marching down a street, quiet flames, destroyed homes and flashes of the current protests. She walks barefoot over scattered broken glass, singing the lyric, “Boards go up, signs come down/Put a new face on this town,” in front of the destroyed home. “Pennies in a woman’s hand/Missing teeth or payment plans/Kids want something worth a damn/But they’re just pissin in the flood,” Price sings, her soothing voice turning into a belt.

In a recent interview with Variety, Price explained how she had first written the song with her husband a couple of years ago, however she finds the song’s themes to have more relevance in the world’s current climate amid the Black Lives Matter protests and COVID-19 pandemic that have been at the forefront of the news cycle in recent months. Price also told Variety that she filmed the scene in front of the destroyed house from the wreckage that had been caused from the Nashville tornado earlier this year. Price performed at the Nashville, With Love charity concert in March, with proceeds benefitting tornado victims. In terms of the protest footage, Price expressed how she wanted to make sure the message was subtle, so that it wouldn’t turn away listeners.

“One of my favorite lines in it is, ‘I don’t have a side to take,'” Price had said in her interview with Variety. “Obviously I have a side that I’m going to vote for, but I think then at the root of my message is that we are all the same. This country is called the United States of America for a reason. We’re so divided right now, and I would love to see people come together and lift each other up and think about what’s going on. Because I feel we’re at such a turning point.”

Price’s recent album had at first been delayed from its initial release date in May due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with the album eventually arriving in July. In June, Price released the music video for her song “Letting Me Down.” Price had also joined Dan Auerbach, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson and others for the John Prine Tribute Show Live Stream which occurred in June. She will also perform at All The Best Fest in 2021, which will return as another John Prine Tribute. Following Prine’s death in April, Price released a cover of his song “All The Best” alongside her husband and musical collaborator, Jeremy Ivey.

Photo credit: Kalyn Oyer