Margo Price “Hard Headed Woman”

Price reconnects with her roots to deliver a classic outlaw country album for the new millennium.

It is now almost ten years since Margo Price released her breakthrough debut album “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter”. The album, inspired by her journey from childhood to Nashville, showcased an artist unafraid to double down on what she believed in and the music she loved, writing intelligent country songs from the heart, filled with passion, all built on three chords and the truth. Since then, there have been a trio of further albums that have found Price defiantly following her own roadmap, fearlessly pushing the boundaries of the genre, venturing into psychedelic rock on her most recent release, the Jonathan Wilson-produced album “Strays”, which came out in 2023. Now, with her fifth studio release, Price has chosen to reconnect with her musical roots, paying tribute to the art of the country song and the legends, many of whom she now considers colleagues and friends, that first inspired the young songwriter from Aledo, Illinois.

“Hard Headed Woman” sees a return to the production chair for Matt Ross-Spang, whose unpretentious approach to recording had found the sweet spot on Price’s first two albums. This time, however, rather than recording the album in Memphis, Price has decamped to Nashville’s legendary RCA Studio A, marking the first time she has recorded in her adopted hometown. With her husband, singer-songwriter, guitarist Jeremy Ivey, ever present at her side, the album consists of twelve songs, a mix of co-writes along with a few carefully chosen covers, and a less cluttered arrangement, allowing the songs more room to breathe.

The album begins with the fifty-three seconds of the title track, a declaration on the prelude, which serves as the album’s mission statement, as Price uncompromisingly sings, “I’m a hard-headed woman, and I don’t owe ya shit”, while a bluegrass fiddle scratches out a foreboding refrain. The message is all the more powerful for its brevity, instantly setting the tone that is reiterated by the second track. ‘Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down’ is a classic outlaw country song that immediately draws comparisons to Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings, and is a co-write with both Ivey and Nashville singer-songwriter legend Rodney Crowell. This track was originally written for a movie that never materialised, with its narrative serving as a clarion call for equality and justice for blue-collar workers. Crowell also shares writing credits on the energetic ‘Red Eye Flight’, where lashings of pedal steel, slide and harmonica underpin an infectious melody that somewhat masks the more sobering narrative, which recognises the need for change. Before recording this album, Price had decided to leave her longtime band The Pricetags, after over a decade of playing together.

There are two guest vocal appearances on the album, with Jesse Welles featuring on the mid-sixties Dylanesque blues groove of ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’, while Tyler Childers offers up his best Porter Wagoner to Price’s Dolly Parton on ‘Love Me Like You Used To’, an excellent song written by one of Nashville’s unsung songsmiths, Steven Knudson. The reflective and unfettered ‘Close To You’ is accentuated by some delightful flamenco guitar that conjures up the image of the desert at dusk, while the contemplative ‘Nowhere Is Where’, with its roadworn but never broken narrative, and Price’s achingly vulnerable vocals, mark this song out as an album highlight.

‘Losing Streak’ bustles in with an organ intro the like of which Al Cooper once delivered for Dylan before the whole band shifts through the gears, taking Price’s loosely biographical world-weary narrative and injecting it with a dose of never-say-die defiance. ‘Keep A Picture’ opens with more rustic fiddle playing, helping to create a sinister ambience that perfectly supports Price’s poetry, while ‘Wild At Heart’ embodies a Western flavour, full of Tex-Mex rhythms and accompaniment as Price recalls her early years in Nashville.

The first of the two cover versions is the Jimmy Peppers and George Jones classic ‘I Just Don’t Give A Damn’ here delivered with a funky groove, some delightful horns, and a whole lot of sass from Price as she dons her best Loretta Lynn and quite literally snarls her way through the song’s title, all topped off with some stinging slide guitar. The other cover comes from the pen of the great Waylon Jennings and was given to Price by his widow, Jessi Colter. ‘Kissin’ You Goodbye’ is classic outlaw country music that acts as the perfect conduit to link the past with the present, and with lots more pedal steel proves the ideal closer for an album that feels both of its time and timeless.

In returning to her roots with “Hard Headed Woman”. Price has delivered an album that comfortably stands alongside those that helped define the genre in the late sixties and early seventies, placing her squarely amongst her heroes whilst carrying the torch for future generations to discover.