Margo Price has clearly spent some time in church. There’s sense of solemnity to the music of ‘Prelude (Hard Headed Woman)’, that takes you back to those early days spent in the pews. Yet, when she sings, “I’m a hard headed woman and I don’t owe you shit” it’s obvious she’s not asking for to be forgiven. She may be a sinner, but at the First Church of Margo, we’ve all sinned a time or two. Proving she is indeed a Hard Headed Woman.
Price has a way with words, deftly combining images in ways that almost defy description. In the midst of ‘Close To You’, a song about her lover set to a solitary bass, drums and a Spanish style guitar she finds time to provide the ultimate slap to Donald Trump. “We talked about heaven and talked about hell/ We played the jukebox while democracy fell.” Tender and touching, the song turns on a dime, before turning back again.
‘Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down,” a cowrite between Price, Kris Kristofferson, Jeremy Ivey and Rodney Crowell is based on a comment Kristofferson made to Sinead O’Conner after she was booed off Saturday Night Live, leading to a posthumous songwriting credit. As country as country can be, the song rocks and riffs with guitar licks that burn with a red-hot fervor, while the lyrics hit with a ferocious punch. “Dudes lookin’ down their noses/ Thinkin’ bullshit smells like roses/ All the cocaine in existence/ Couldn’t keep your nose out of my business.” Kristofferson makes a vocal cameo as the song fades out.
Despite rockin’ hard, Price also has a way with gentle numbers like ‘Nowhere Is Where’. The fiddle that weaves its way through ‘Keep A Picture’ turns a dime as does the song. Price wrestles with her emotions while the violin does the same, exposing the depths of her performance.
Though some songs hue closer to the line of pure country, this is a collection that covers so much territory, from duets with Tyler Childers and Jesse Welles, while she straddles country and rock divide ‘Red Eye Flight’. And then there’s the final number, Waylon Jenning’s ‘Kissing You Goodbye’, a perfect sign-off for the album and a number highlighting everything that’s right about Margo Price.
If there ever was any doubt Margo Price is making music all her own, Hard Headed Woman puts that to rest. She is a true original, making the music she wants to make, taking no prisoners and finding ways to cut through the morass of conservative country creating her own agenda.