ALBUM REVIEW – MARGO PRICE – HARD HEADED WOMAN
- Rick E
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
WORDS RICK E
HARD HEADED WOMAN
MARGO PRICE
Sometimes the best thing an artist can do is stop overthinking and return to what made them dangerous in the first place. For Margo Price, that moment has arrived with surgical precision on *Hard Headed Woman*, a white-hot collection of honky-tonk hellfire that strips away the experimental flourishes of recent years and plants its boots firmly back in the dive bar dirt where Price first made her mark.
After two albums that saw the Nashville provocateur exploring psychedelic tangents and genre-bending adventures, *Hard Headed Woman* feels like coming home to find your house has been completely renovated - everything familiar yet somehow more vital than before. This isn't nostalgia; it's evolution disguised as revolution, and Price wears her defiance like a bulletproof vest tailored by the ghosts of Loretta Lynn and Waylon Jennings.
Reuniting with producer Matt Ross-Spang at the legendary RCA Studio A, Price has crafted her most cohesive statement since 2017's *All American Made*. The album opens with "Prelude," a brief but essential fiddle-driven overture that serves notice this is not going to be another detour into experimental territory. The harmonious fiddle-based 'Prelude' sets the tone for the album, establishing the classic country framework that Price proceeds to demolish and rebuild in her own image across the following twelve tracks.
What strikes you immediately about *Hard Headed Woman* is its sense of urgency. The album is tight and fiery, as she ruminates on the state of the world, but Price never lets her political convictions overshadow her storytelling. This is protesting music wrapped in honky-tonk silk, delivered with the kind of raw emotional intelligence that made her early work so compelling. The title track arrives early and hits like a shot of bourbon at closing time - all swagger and substance, with Price channelling the spirit of classic outlaw country while remaining thoroughly modern in her perspective.
The production deserves particular praise here. Ross-Spang, who helmed Price's breakthrough albums, understands exactly how to capture the lightning in a bottle that makes Price's voice so distinctive. The sound is warm but never overly polished, allowing the grain in Price's vocals to cut through the mix like broken glass catching sunlight. Every instrument has space to breathe, from the pedal steel that weaves through the arrangements like smoke through a honky-tonk to the rhythm section that anchors everything with the kind of pocket that makes your body move before your brain catches up.
Lyrically, Price is operating at peak form throughout *Hard Headed Woman*. She has always been a writer who understands that the best country songs find the universal in the specific, and these tracks mine both personal experience and societal observation with equal skill. Her voice carries the weight of someone who's lived through the stories she is telling whether she is addressing motherhood, political disillusionment, or the simple complexities of trying to maintain your integrity in a world determined to compromise it.
The album's guest appearances feel organic rather than obligatory. The album features collaboration with Tyler Childers & Jesse Welles, contributions from Rodney Crowell, Kris Kristofferson & Waylon, but these are not celebrity cameos designed to generate buzz - they are musical conversations between kindred spirits. The presence of legends like Kristofferson and contributions from the younger generation represented by Childers creates a sense of continuity that reinforces the album's central theme: that authentic country music isn't about when you were born, but how honestly, you're willing to examine the world around you.
Mid-album, Price delivers some of her strongest individual tracks. "Don't Wake Me Up," a song that tips its cap to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean" sensibilities while remaining thoroughly Price's own creation, finds her grappling with the temptation to retreat from reality in times of overwhelming chaos. It is a moment of vulnerability that makes the defiance elsewhere on the record feel earned rather than performative.
The album's pacing is masterful, alternating between barn-burning rockers and more contemplative moments without ever losing momentum. Price understands that the best country albums work like great novels - they need peaks and valleys, moments of release and reflection. *Hard Headed Woman* achieves this balance through careful sequencing that allows each song to breathe while maintaining the overall narrative arc.
What's most impressive about this collection is how Price manages to honour country music's traditions while pushing them forward. This is country music as only Margo Price can make it: free of rules, cherishing tradition, hard-headed with a delicate heart. She is not interested in museum-piece recreations of classic sounds, but rather in channelling the rebellious spirit that made outlaw country revolutionary in the first place.
The album's final act brings everything full circle, with Price delivering some of her most personal material. These songs feel like conversations rather than performances, intimate moments that reveal the artist behind the attitude. By the time the final notes fade, you're left with the impression that you've witnessed something essential - not just a return to form, but an artist fully embracing her own power.
Fans of quality country, pull-no-punches songwriting, and often guitar-forward tunes that just fucking rip should all be glad for Hard Headed Woman. This is not just Price's strongest effort in years; it is a reminder of why she matters in the first place. In an era where country music often feels sanitized and focus-grouped into oblivion, Price delivers the kind of authentic rebellion that the genre was built on.
Hard Headed Woman is a much-needed return to form as Margo Price delivers dive bar dreams, honky-tonk heartache, and good old outlaw defiance throughout. But calling it simply a return undersells what Price has accomplished here. This is an artist who took a detour, learned some things about herself and her craft, and came back stronger than before.
The album's greatest strength lies in its refusal to choose between intelligence and emotion, between political awareness and personal truth. Price understands that the best country music has always contained multitudes - joy and sorrow, hope and despair, tradition, and progress. *Hard Headed Woman* captures all these contradictions without trying to resolve them, creating space for listeners to find their own meanings within the songs.
In a landscape where authenticity is often performed rather than lived, Margo Price continues to stand apart. *Hard Headed Woman* is the sound of an artist who knows exactly who she is and is not interested in being anyone else. It is essential listening for anyone who believes that country music still has the power to tell hard truths wrapped in beautiful melodies.
**Standout Tracks: ** "Hard Headed Woman," "Prelude," "Don't Wake Me Up."
The Nashville rabble-rouser's triumphant return to her country roots
4/5
Hard Headed Woman – Full Track List
1. Prelude
2. Don’t Last The Bastards Get You Down
3. Red Eye Flight
4. Don’t Wake Me Up (feat. Jesse Welles)
5. Close To You
6. Nowhere Is Where
7. Losing Streak
8. I Just Don’t Give A Damn
9. Keep A Picture
10. Love Me Like You Used To (feat. Tyler Childers)
11. Wild At Heart
12. Kissing You Goodbye
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