Album Review: Margo Price – Hard Headed Woman

After two albums where she strayed somewhat from her country music roots, Margo Price is back in the genre she started in with the release of this new album ‘Hard Headed Woman’. This week she played the Opry, wearing clothes loaned from Loretta Lynn’s archive, suggesting Margo has come home, all guns blazing, ready to take back the genre once again. 

Why now, you may ask? Perhaps it was just time to shake things up again, or maybe there is something of the rebel spirit here in this decision. Country music in the last couple of years has been sadly even further co-opted by the conservatives. Margo’s return to the genre reminds that country was once the home of progressive icons like Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris. Even those country icons of the past who leaned right, like Loretta Lynn, still had outspoken defiance and a fierce independent spirit within their songwriting that showed all women in the genre a way forward. Maybe Margo just wants to remind people of what country music should sound like. 

And it’s hard not to conclude that Margo hasn’t had her due from Americana fans either, in the same way as men who broke through at the same time as she did. Why are Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson bigger artists than their female equivalents? The answer is, sadly, misogyny (I discussed this at length in my review of her previous album All American Made). Margo’s husband Jeremy Ivey this week posted his thoughts on how she has never had any credit for how her music influenced Nashville’s mainstream and helped the revival of a traditional country sound on Music Row. Time and time again women’s contributions are overlooked and undervalued.

What’s a hard headed woman to do then, in the face of all this bullshit? Well Margo’s only answer is: don’t let the bastards get you down. What she has done with this song and album, is take a long hard look at the injustices of life and stuck a middle finger up in its face. The song itself is a hollering good time, a raucous riot of a reminder to just not give a shit, sung with the badass howl of a woman who knows what she’s talking about. Get it tattooed on your ass because these are truly the only words to live by. 

Country music has a great history of travelling songs, although they’ve historically been about jumping on trains or hitting the highway. Instead on ‘Red Eye Flight’ Margo’s getting the hell out of town on a plane, taking a coach seat to anywhere. It sounds fantastic, a riposte to the lying, drinking, love of her life. Both these opening songs were written along with her husband Jeremy Ivey and legend Rodney Crowell. 

We then have another instant classic on ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’ where she uses more of her Bob Dylan influence to explore thoughts on how she’d rather escape life than live in the world right now. Everyone can relate to this one. She has sweet vocal support from Jesse Welles, who has gone viral with his scathingly satirical songs on the social issues of the day.  It’s got a fantastic video too, which also underlines what a compelling performer Margo is. 

‘Close to You’ slows things down, with a love song that explores the story of her relationship with her husband, at times veering into co-dependency and obsession. ‘Nowhere is Where’ offers a ride to another lost soul and these slower numbers are a quieter contrast to the more feisty songs. 

What Margo has always done so well is write songs that tell her own life story with heart and humour and ‘Losing Streak’ is another one that immediately paints the most vivid picture of her vulnerability. She sings about trying to make it in music, the feeling of failure, the problems of drinking, the weight of depression that have plagued her life. Musically it’s as good as the songs on her debut, reminding us to ‘count our lucky bruises’. 

There are a few covers on the album including George Jones’s ‘I Just Don’t Give a Damn’ which he wrote at 3am in bitter despair at his divorce, and in the hands of a woman it sounds like the greatest ‘fuck you’ possible. Then we have a duet with Tyler Childers of a song written by her friend Steven Knudsen. ‘Love Me Like You Used To Do’ suggests these two would make a perfect pairing for a revival of classic country duet albums. 

On ‘Wild at Heart’ we have an infectious slice of nostalgia for times in the past, a gorgeous moment of longing for youth and freedom sung with the sass of a woman who has lived it. The album finishes with ‘Kissing You Goodbye’, a song written by Waylon Jennings that includes the classic line ‘take your tongue out of my mouth / I’m kissing you goodbye’ which feels like the kind of sentiment that sums up the whole attitude of this album. 

So as the album fades out those opening lines of the ‘prelude’ recurred in my head ‘I’m a hard headed woman and I don’t owe you shit / I ain’t ashamed / I just am what I am.’ Her unapologetic, radical confidence is everything. 

Listening to ‘Hard Headed Woman’ just makes me conclude that Margo Price is one of the best to ever do it. If you disagree, then don’t let the door hit you on the way out. 

BUY: https://margoprice.bandcamp.com/album/hard-headed-woman