The dozen songs on Margo Price’s latest album provide solid evidence of her claim of hardheadedness. As listeners, we benefit from her strong sense of autonomy.
Margo Price lets the listener know right away; she’s a hardheaded woman. She unpretentiously declares that in the opening acoustic “Prelude”. That doesn’t mean she’s cold-hearted. The opposite is true. She’s hardheaded in the sense that she’ll stubbornly stand up for the things she believes in. Her emotional warmth pervades her worldview and artistic sensibility. However, don’t mistake her compassion for weakness, or she will kick your butt down the street and back again. Price is one tough cookie.
You can feel Price’s self-righteous anger on songs that have the word “don’t” in their titles, such as “I Just Don’t Give a Damn”, “Don’t Wake Me Up”, and “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”. “I Just Don’t Give a Damn”, is a rewritten George Jones cover that rollickingly takes aim at her detractors with a blaring horn accompaniment and searing guitar licks. “Don’t Wake Me Up” features folkie Jesse Welles in a Bob Dylan-style ballad, reminiscent of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, that presents their shared attitude towards the bullshit masquerading as truth in this modern world.
These are incredible songs, but the best “don’t” track is “Don’t Let the Bastards Get Your Down”, inspired by Kris Kristofferson‘s whispered remarks to Sinead O’Connor when she was booed on stage at a Dylan 30th anniversary show. Price ends the song with an archival rendition of the late singer’s voice saying the words and credits him as a co-writer (with his widow’s blessing). Price herself shouts the anthemic lyrics as much as she sings them to show how much she means what she says. That’s the hardheaded part of her.
Price’s softer side can be found on tracks like “Close to You”, fellow Nashvillian Steve Knudson’s tender “Love Me Like You Used to Do” (which features a duetting Tyler Childers), and “Kissin’ You Goodbye”, a Waylon Jennings tune given to her by Jennings’ widow Jessi Colter. These songs bring out the country side of Price, who may have begun life as a midwestern farmer’s daughter but now represents the alternative Music City scene. She has lived there for the past two decades and recorded the record in Nashville’s legendary RCA Studio A with producer Matt Ross-Spang, who co-produced her first two solo efforts.
Price doesn’t sugarcoat her Nashville experience. The autobiographical “Losing Streak” details the hardships she endured trying to make a living in the town. The song was co-written by her husband/partner and fellow musician Jeremy Ivey. Ivey is also credited as a co-writer of the song “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”, as is Nashville via Texas artist Rodney Crowell. Crowell is also listed as contributing to writing two other album cuts.
Margo Price may have found a home in Nashville, but she’s too much of an independent cuss to be labeled as any one thing. “I ain’t ashamed / I just am what I am,” she sings in a Popeye-like manifesto on the opening “Prelude”. That theme runs rampant throughout. She’s independent and doesn’t owe anyone shit. The dozen songs on Margo Price’s latest album provide solid evidence of her claim of hardheadedness. As listeners, we benefit from her strong sense of autonomy.