Nearly a decade ago, MARGO PRICE turned Nashville on its head with her breakthrough, beloved debut solo album, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter. Released in the throes of bro-country and before pop stars were crossing over into the genre left and right, it showcased an artist completely unafraid to double down not only on herself, but what she’d always loved: classic country songs written from the intellect and the gut, hell-bent on truth-telling and both timeless and urgent all at once. Respected by her peers, praised by critics and beloved by her fans, Price created a lane where independent-minded, insurgent country music can exist and thrive alongside the mainstream, and became an ardent fighter for her beliefs in a genre where the norm is to shut up and sing. A trailblazer and a champion for the craft, Price redefined what it meant to be a modern country artist.

And now she’s back with an exquisite, truly timeless album that reconnects with her roots and pays tribute to the art of the country song, inspired in part by the legends whom she now calls colleagues and friends. Hard Headed Woman is both a look forward and a look back: a way to march forward while staying true to yourself when the path of less resistance is right there in front of us, and short cuts are around every corner. And a way to look back when we need to trim what is no longer working, and to stay connected with where we’re from. It is a promise and a manifesto, a love song to both a city and a genre, and a defiant cry for individuality.

In creating Hard Headed Woman, Price brought all of her power as one of  our most beloved and respected songwriters to craft a deep exploration of love and America in a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Featuring appearances from Tyler Childers, co-writes with Rodney Crowell and a Waylon Jennings song that his widow, Jessi Colter, urged her to sing, it is country music as only Price can make it: free of rules, cherishing tradition, hard headed to the core but with a delicate, beating heart. 

Since releasing Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, Price has barely slowed down. She’s made four records, played Saturday Night Live, been nominated for a Grammy, toured the world alongside artists like Chris Stapleton and Willie Nelson, released a lauded memoir (Maybe We’ll Make It), became an in-demand producer and was appointed as the first female board member of Nelson’s Farm Aid. And she’s been fearless when it came to genre, venturing into psychedelic rock on her most recent, Jonathan Wilson-produced record, Strays. It would have been easiest to just stay that course, and keep running. But Price doesn’t follow success or comfort. She follows the art.

It took a whole lot of hard work and honesty with herself and others to get there, but that’s never stopped Price before.  “I made the decision that I had to rebuild everything from the ground up,” Price says. “There’s all this pressure to be pumping out content, and I felt the opposite in the way I wanted to approach this record and my life in general.”

Price had also established herself as one of the most passionate, vocal artists in country music and beyond when it came to standing up for political and personal causes, from the presidential election, to abortion to gun control: happily hard headed when it came to the fight for equality and justice, especially for the working class and underserved in our society. Price has always brilliantly woven her activism into her songs, but her role as a spokesperson had started to overtake, on occasion, her role as a songwriter. She wanted to focus on using her written word to deliver the most potent punch of all.

“I always hope to do like Johnny Cash did,” Price says, “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.”

Price realized she just needed a break from everything outside of the bubble of family life and her art. She started spending more time at home, writing songs alone and with her husband, Jeremey Ivey. She started popping up in the dive bars and tiny venues around Nashville where she got her start, sometimes just to play a country cover or two or dance with the crowd. She refused guidance to write for pop stars or compromise her values for a quick buck. Most of all, she turned the emphasis in her music back to songwriting, exactly where she began.         

“So much of Strays was leaning into this psychedelic, textural territory,” says Price. The music lent itself to vibrant, heavy stage jams, with Price often hopping behind the drumkit and bruising her thigh from a tambourine beat. She found herself longing for the days when it was just her and her guitar, playing at an East Nashville dive bar. “I always knew,” she adds, “I would come back to this more rooted sound.”

Hard Headed Woman is rooted to its core. Rooted in Price’s history and struggle to make it as a musician for so many years in a town that prizes uniformity and the bottom line, rooted in the country and folk sounds that have become her signature, rooted in the simplicity of a few key collaborators instead of songs-by-committee. At the heart of Price’s work is her creative partnership with Ivey, with whom she describes as having a “soul connection.” “I'm a songwriter,” Price says. “I'm not somebody who goes out and needs five people to craft a song, and then tack my name on it. That’s never been my style. I have something to say.”

The album that unfolded from there is drenched in Price’s unique story and unshakeable instincts: while Midwest Farmer’s Daughter was about her journey from childhood to Nashville, Hard Headed Woman is very much her battle since from dive bars to tour buses, through parenthood and marriage, through scrutiny and sacrifice all while fighting constantly for what she believes in, and the music she loves. 

When it came time to record Hard Headed Woman, it was important for Price to keep that ethos alive, decamping to Nashville’s RCA Studio A and reuniting with producer Matt Ross-Spang, with whom she made her first two solo albums. Though she has worked with everyone from Sturgill Simpson to Jonathan Wilson since, it was Spang’s vocal rebuke of easy studio shortcuts that made her eager to reunite again. “He’s so unpretentious,” Price says. “He fully believes in me, he fully believes in my songs. He got us back to feeling it in your gut and not needing everything to be so perfect.”

It felt truly significant for Price to make the album in Nashville, a city where she’s lived for over two decades and played a seminal role in its transformation, yet somehow never recorded an album in the place she’s called home. The historic RCA Studio A helped connect Price even closer to the legacy of songwriting she holds so dear, a place where everyone from Dolly Parton to John Prine to Loretta Lynn have made albums. “It felt like there were ghosts and spirits just hanging out,” Price says. In perfect kismet, she also launched her own signature Gibson J-45 guitar, inspired by her 1960’s Gibson she’s had by her side for years as her career took off. It’s all part of the continuity that she wishes to create with her art, not just with timeless songs but inspiring future generations of women, mothers and artists in general who don’t want to sacrifice their vision, moral compass or family life in favor of mainstream success.

At its core, Hard Headed Woman is about that furious instinct to never waver, especially when ourselves, our values and our future is so clearly on the line. As she sings on the title track, “I ain’t ashamed, I just am what I am.”

“I hope this album inspires people to be fearless and take chances and just be unabashedly themselves,” Price says, “in a culture that tries as hard as it can to beat us into all being the same.”

SEAN THOMPSON has been stretching the boundaries of Nashville music for over the past decade. His nimble and lyrical guitar playing has anchored the live bands of Erin Rae, Teddy and the Roughriders, Emily Nenni, Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection, and more. But it’s his songwriting project, Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears, that’s positioned the 33-year-old as one of the most psychedelic and adventurous artists working today. Head In the Sand, the latest Weird Ears album, released February 7, 2025. It’s not only a leap for its expansive and immersive arrangements but for how Thompson translated one of the most difficult periods of his life into his most personal and cathartic record yet. Over 10 rollicking and undeniable tracks, the LP is a potent wake-up call to let go when things get tough. It’s about being present and embracing life’s towering highs and brutal lows head-on.

When Thompson made his 2022 debut Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears in 2020, he had nothing but time to write, reflect, and tweak. With Head In the Sand, Thompson’s process couldn’t have been more different. “My mom died from cancer, my dog passed, and I had a life-altering breakup,” he says. “While that was happening I probably played 200 shows that year. I was just living on the road. This record was made while life was happening. I didn't have the luxury to sit and think about what to do.” The strikingly autobiographical songs on the record reflect this turbulent period in Thompson’s life. 

This album was a direct reaction to everything going on in Thompson’s life. Though he’d never approached lyrics this way before, he decided to just create freely and unselfconsciously. “It was actually natural to write about those emotionally intense things because it was so cathartic creatively and emotionally,” says Thompson. Grappling with his grief and how unmoored he felt allowed him to see the unhealthy habits he’d developed in his life. “You can go your entire life having an idea about who you're supposed to be,” he says. “You can become blinded by your ego, and live life with total blinders on and miss what’s happening around you.” The phrase Head In the Sand became a sort of North Star for Thompson, a reminder to stop living life with the idea of yourself instead of being in the moment.

Thompson made Head In the Sand with a cast of longtime Nashville collaborators. Recorded and produced by Jake Davis, Thompson enlists bassists Alec O'Connell and Ryan Jennings, Jo Schornikow (Phosphorescent) on keys, drummer Ben Parks, Erin Rae, Michael Ruth (Rich Ruth) on synths, guitarist Jack Quiggins and steel player Spencer Cullum. Here, he substitutes the carefree twang of his debut for something more cosmic, timeless, and exploratory. “I thought, ‘"Okay, man, I did a country rock record: I'm good on that for a while,” he says. “This record is way more of a portrait of who I am." Inspired by Herbie Hancock, Frank Zappa, and the Grateful Dead, Thompson eschewed the standard singer-songwriter palette for something knottier. 

Early in the recording, Thompson indulged his perfectionist side when he was emotionally at his lowest. “The first recording session coincided with my mom’s diagnosis and the crazy way that I was feeling affected everything about every note choice that I made,” he says. “No take felt right because I was struggling mentally. But I realized it feels more human. That's life, that's how it goes. You gotta keep playing the music.” On the anxiety-riddled “Storm’s Coming Tonight,” he decided to record the track in one take and the explosive result warts and all is the record at its most compelling. “It sounds human, and that's maybe more of a desired goal than sounding virtuosic,” he says. “I'd rather my music just sound like a person made it.”

Head In the Sand is an exercise in relinquishing control and letting things come as organically as possible. For Thompson, the 10 tracks on this LP were opportunities to let go of grief, exhaustion, and chaos to be radically present. Through his lush and cerebral explorations of disparate sounds, he found the magic of making music with his closest companions and welcomed imperfection. What happened was unequivocally thrilling and a resonant reflection of his journey as a person and a bandleader. “The happy accidents get you to where you’re supposed to be,” says Thompson. “Life's happening all around you, and maybe that's more important than whatever you think you're supposed to be doing.”