Album Review – Margo Price’s “Hard Headed Woman”

Oh, Miss Margo Price: the jilted high school cheerleader captain of country music. She had us all singing her praises when she released her debut album Midwest Farmer’s Daughter in 2016. But after some serious overhyping, and her propensity to tell people to shove it on Twitter under the veil of “activism,” she became a super polarizing character, eventually fluttering away from country music to some version of pop in the vein of Kacey, Maren, Taylor, and so many other country women.
But now Margo’s back, reunited with original producer Matt Ross-Spang, and just released perhaps the best album since her debut, maybe the best album of her entire career, and maybe one of the best country albums so far this year—and in a year of kick ass country albums from kick ass country women. If a guy that Margo once said was an “uneducated, misogynistic, racist, homophobic bully” can give this thing an honest listen and come to this conclusion (don’t worry, she got ratio’d by her own fans), so can you. This really is a killer record.
It’s been said before, but making great country music really isn’t that complicated ladies and gentlemen. Pick up a pen and paper and spill your guts, get some hot shit pickers in the studio, find some good variety in mood and tempo, and don’t try to be too cute about it. Along with some quality songs, Hard Headed Woman is just a great listening record, fun and infectious at times, deeply sentimental in others, and strongly country to go along with ample variety to keep the listening experience interesting.
Margo Price says what inspired her to get back to her country roots was shaking up her touring band. Sturgill Simpson might be partly to blame for that after he stole bass player Kevin Black back. Ironically, Simpson did his own stint in the Price Tags before his career exploded. But really the story of Hard Headed Woman feels like Margo going back in time to before her two kids with fellow performer Jeremy Ivey, and singing songs about when she was young, heartbroken, and hungry.

Tough times are where the best country songs come from. Margo Price sings about a lot of tough times on this record. “Close To You” and “Keep a Picture” capture the authentic emotions of a pining heart, and are graced by strong storytelling. “Nowhere is Where” is a sad exploration of Midwest despondency that Price can sing about with authority. These songs are also complimented by interesting textures, however understated, like the fiddle in “Nowhere.” Price has always struggled to capture the best of herself in studio. Hard Headed Woman brakes that streak.
Price does reprise her tradition of having duet partners sing in uncomfortable keys when Tyler Childers joins her on “Love Me Like You Used To Do.” But man is the song a country heartbreaker that ultimately sets right in your ears. And even though there’s a lot of sad songs here, the album doesn’t listen through like a downer overall. “Losing Streak” is about living out of your car and in the same clothes for a couple of weeks, but Price makes this upbeat country rock anthem feel downright inspirational by the end, constituting one of the record’s best tracks.
And if you want hot shit country songs, you got them with “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down” co-written with Kris Kristofferson and Rodney Crowell, the super fun “Red Eye Flight,” and the perfect album ender in “Kissing You Goodbye.” There are a lot of influences evidenced on Hard Headed Woman, but the prevailing one is country with an Outlaw kick.
The title of this album can be employed both as a euphemism and as a term of endearment. There’s nothing inherently wrong with being principled or even political if a performer feels it’s necessary. But there is a point when an artist’s prickly nature fails to serve their own interests, or even fails to serve the political causes they support. At times in her career, Margo Price has found that breaking point, while also losing sight of what makes her special as a musician and artist. By recognizing her own hard-headedness, she can utilize it as a strength, but not allow it to be a burden or a weakness.
What’s great about a great album is that it solves a lot of problems, puts things into perspective, papers over petty grievances, and puts the emphasis where it should be first and foremost: the music. That’s the kind of retrenching, revitalizing, entertaining, and important album Margo Price has released with Hard Headed Woman, at least in the estimate of this “uneducated, misogynistic, racist, homophobic bully.”
8.3/10
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September 2, 2025 @ 7:32 am
I have enjoyed her albums since Midwest Farmer’s Daughter even though they had definitely strayed from country they still retained a country element in some parts however I’m glad she is back to a pure honky tonkin’ kick ass country sound and this is the album I’ve wanted ever since that great debut album and will be in contention for album of the year.
Well done for reviewing it fairly and honestly which with agendas and egos isn’t always the case these days
September 2, 2025 @ 8:00 am
This for me is her best album to date.
September 2, 2025 @ 8:21 am
I was turned off by MP a long time ago, a lot of reasons mentioned in the article. Glad she is back to making good music.
September 2, 2025 @ 8:27 am
Will check this out even if it does feature Jesse Welles. Can’t stand that guy
September 2, 2025 @ 8:47 am
Coming from someone who thinks Jesse Welles is great, his duet is one of the weaker songs on the album. The duet with Tyler Childers does capture him in a strange key, but it’s great.
September 2, 2025 @ 9:40 am
I don’t like him either. But on the duet he is hardly noticeable. You can hear it and after the song there are definitely great songs on the album that will cleanse your ears and that will compensate you for the little bit of Welles on the album.
September 2, 2025 @ 10:02 am
Yeah, not a proper duet and more like a feature.
September 2, 2025 @ 9:03 am
Some darn good pickin’ on here.
September 2, 2025 @ 9:29 am
With great young women like the Castellows playing their fresh and carefree version of traditional country, and “old” experienced women returning to country as naturally and confidently as Margo Price, I have no worries at all about the female future of country.
“Hard Headed Woman” – after her last albums I didn’t have too high expectations for her return to country.
But – bang… What an album! There is actually nothing to add to this very good review here on SCM. “Hard Headed Woman” will surely be seen years from now as one of the albums that define the current creative outburst of the true country renaissance.
September 2, 2025 @ 9:36 am
Is that Kristofferson’s voice at the very end of “Don’t Let the Bastards Get You Down”?
September 2, 2025 @ 9:41 am
Listened to this album a bunch of times since it came out. It’s a solid album front to back and a return to Margo’s original songwriting style with a bit of an updated sound. I forget who the guitarist is in the new touring band but he can pick!
Saw her in Maine a month or so ago and she still kills it live. Also got on stage with Turnpike Troubadours to close out their set with Long Hot Summer Days.
September 2, 2025 @ 10:00 am
Saw MP at Jackelope a few years ago when she was firmly in the Pop era. But, she was wildly entertaining and incredibly talented singing while playing drums, piano, and guitar (not at the same time). She was a pleasant surprise to me. But, this album is a really really good country album. Nailed this review, Trigger.
September 2, 2025 @ 10:24 am
Great review. I think you pretty much nailed it. This whole album is a solid piece of work. Margo really delivered on this one.
September 2, 2025 @ 10:57 am
MP seems like one of those artists, with a voice that engineers struggle to capture in studio. I’ve seen her a half dozen times live and loved it each time, but her album vocals always left me feeling blah… This album is much better in that regard.
September 2, 2025 @ 11:05 am
I’ve been saying for going on a decade that Margo’s studio albums fail to capture her magic live. I think that’s one of the reasons I got on the wrong side of her. I was hoping the Sturgill Simpson-produced album would finally solve this, and it still struggled. This album finally accomplishes that.