On this page you will learn more about Margo’s family farm and Farm Aid story, and you can find more details on each of the artifacts displayed in the road case available for viewing by fans on Margo’s current tour.
The Price Family Farm
Growing up in a small town in Illinois (Aledo, population 3,600), Margo’s dreams were as big as the sky on her family’s farm, which was lost in 1986, near the height of the Farm Crisis that spurred the creation of Farm Aid. In her memoir, Maybe We’ll Make It, she describes the loss of the farm as “still a sore subject in my family that hardly anyone will talk about.” She says “No one was ever the same” after the family lost the farm. Her grandparents had to sell their farmhouse and move “into a tiny ranch-style [home] on the edge of town. From their kitchen window you could see perfect rows of corn in fields that belonged to someone else. I sometimes caught Grandpa Paul gazing out that window with a faraway look in his eyes.” Her own parents also suffered the loss hard. Margo’s dad had always expected to take over the family farm as the next generation and now he had to find new lines of work as a prison guard and weekend auto mechanic.
Margo’s family history in agriculture—and the way they lost the farm, like so many other farm families during this tumultuous time—is one reason that she is so passionate about Farm Aid. But the rest of her story has connections as well, from her love of songwriting that has the power to ignite social and political movements, to her embrace of country living and the outdoors and her understanding of what is to work hard for a dream that others deem impossible.
In 2016, Margo released her breakthrough album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, which begins with “Hands of Time,” a song that tells the story of losing the Price family farm. Later that year, Margo played her first Farm Aid festival in Bristow, Virginia.
Farm Aid
Led by founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young, Farm Aid has stood side-by-side with family farmers for 40 years, amplifying their voices, connecting them to resources and bringing their stories and struggles into the national spotlight. Inspired by a comment from Bob Dylan during Live Aid, in the midst of the 1980s farm crisis, Willie Nelson organized the first Farm Aid benefit concert at the University of Illinois’s Memorial Stadium in September 1985. Willie, John and Neil were joined by dozens of country and rock artists—from Merle Haggard to Lou Reed to Bon Jovi—to perform before 80,000 people and to a national television audience. It was supposed to be, like Live Aid, a one-time event. But 40 years later, Farm Aid is still here, fighting to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America. The organization continues to hold an annual music festival. In 2001, Dave Matthews joined Farm Aid’s Board of Directors and in 2021 Margo became the first female artist to join the Board.
Farm Aid’s legacy is not one of going it alone, but of helping give a voice to family farmers, shining a spotlight on their leadership and the solutions they represent and building connections between farmers and the people who depend on them. By walking alongside farmers and their allies, Farm Aid has helped shape a deep national appreciation for farmers and an understanding of the vital relationship of agriculture to people, land, community and culture.
Read more about Farm Aid’s work:
