Margo Price proves outlaw country ain’t just a boys club on her new album, Hard Headed Woman, out now via Loma Vista Recordings.
Produced by longtime collaborator Matt Ross-Spang, the 12-track LP features duets with alt-country star Tyler Childers and viral folk sensation Jesse Welles, as well as songs co-written with Rodney Crowell, Jeremy Ivey, and the late Kris Kristofferson and a Waylon Jennings cover that his widow, Jessi Colter, encouraged her to sing. It is Price’s first album recorded in Nashville, a city she’s called home for more than two decades, at the historic RCA Studio A.
“I always hope to do like Johnny Cash did, which is speak up for the common man and woman. But there have been so many threats and anger and vitriol over the years, when I am only coming from a place of love. So I made the decision to rebuild everything from the ground up,” said Price. “I hope this album inspires people to be fearless and take chances and just be unabashedly themselves, in a culture that tries as hard as it can to beat us into all being the same.”
Following an opening prelude, the album begins with the contrarian rallying cry “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down”. Co-written with Kristofferson, Crowell, and Ivey, the track’s title comes from a line in The Handmaid’s Tale and the advice Kristofferson gave Sinéad O’Connor after she was booed at Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert.
Margo Price – “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down”
The tracklist also includes “Don’t Wake Me Up”, a collaboration with Jesse Wells, whose sharp lyricism shines in lines like, “Don’t wake me up, I ain’t up for that / The way this world is going, ain’t where I’m at,” and “Love Me Like You Used To Do”, a slow and twangy country waltz about two wistful lovers trying to rekindle the spark in their relationship by pretending to meet like strangers, with Tyler Childers playing the part of Price’s male counterpart. The album concludes with a spunky and defiant cover of Waylon Jennings’ “Kissing You Goodbye”, in which Price proclaims, “Just get your tongue out of my mouth / I’m kissing you goodbye.”
Margo Price – “Don’t Wake Me Up” Featuring Jesse Welles
Margo Price has kept a busy schedule in the weeks leading up to the album’s release, playing a packed show in New York City, singing the national anthem at a Mets game, and appearing at the Newport Folk Festival, where she declared “F–ck ICE,” before delivering a widely shared performance of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees”. She also joined Jesse Welles, John C. Reilly, Lukas Nelson, Stephen Wilson Jr., and Joe Russo for covers of Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, and Neil Young.
She celebrated the release of her new album with a special midnight performance at Grimey’s in Nashville and will return to the Grand Ole Opry on release day, where she will honoring the legacy of one of her idols, Loretta Lynn, by performing in one of her gowns.
Backed by a brand new live band and armed with her newly launched signature Gibson J-45, Price will hit the road in support of Hard Headed Woman for a string of U.S. and international tour dates, including an Farm Aid, where she serves as the first female musician appointed to the Board of Directors, and a newly announced date on the rooftop of L.A.’s Grammy Museum. Click below for a full list of tour dates and head here for tickets.
She is also set to release the paperback edition of her memoir, Maybe We’ll Make It, on September 2nd and has launched a new THC + CBD peach tea collaboration with WellBeing, available now online.
Listen to Hard Headed Women below or on your preferred streaming platform, and head here to order the album on limited edition vinyl, 8-track, reel-to-reel, and more.