Out now on Loma Vista Recordings, Margo Price‘s Hard Headed Woman is “a gorgeous display of classic country tropes, blues instrumentation and songwriting prowess.” (Clash), and across the record she is “still as raw and honest as she’s always been” (NME). Among the tracklist’s many highlights is “Love Me Like You Used To Do,” a heartbreaking ballad and waltzing duet featuring Price’s friend Tyler Childers on co-lead vocals, written by Steven Knudson. In a new video released today, Price and Childers bring listeners into their recording process at Nashville’s Sound Emporium, where they cut the song together, following Price and her band’s album sessions at the historic RCA Studio A. Watch the video here.
In the past week, Margo Price delivered the final performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! before the show was pulled off the air until tonight. In a prescient and uncanny choice of song, she ripped through a rendition of Hard Headed Woman‘s “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down,” an anthem for free speech and self-expression that was partly inspired by the words of encouragement that Kris Kristofferson whispered to Sinéad O’Connor more than 30 years ago, while she was facing the repercussions of her own historic television appearance.
In honor of Sinéad O’Connor, Margo Price began her Kimmel performance by tearing up a piece of paper representing all the bastards out there trying to drag the world down, but ended the song with a prophetic message decrying fascism, changing the final lyrics of “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down” from “keep all the haters underground” to “keep all them fascists underground,” as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. In the aftermath, Rolling Stone noted the irony of the song, and Billboard pointed out the extra meaningful nature of its message.
“‘Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down’ is pertinent now more than ever. This is about free speech, and view points, and people being able to express those viewpoints. We’re losing that right, and that’s the very thing this country was built on,” said Margo Price, on CNN’s Inside Politics with Dana Bash. “My first-ever performance on television was on the Colbert show. These shows are a real platform for music discovery…and it’s disappearing, the places where you can be discovered. I am grateful that Jimmy let me come on there and sing a song that maybe is a little controversial, with the language inside of it, but I was writing about the very thing that’s happening today, so it’s kind of eerie.”
Following her appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Margo Price traveled to Minnesota for the 40th Anniversary of Farm Aid, where she serves as the first female artist elected to the Board of Directors. Her set was introduced by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who declared:
“For our next artist, Margo Price, this is personal. She is a Midwest farmer’s daughter, she grew up in Illinois, they lost their family farm in the 80s, and she took that experience and she put it to music,” said Senator Klobuchar. “Her songs are about resilience, her songs are about dignity, her songs are about coming back from the hardest of times. And she is so good, that last week she was a featured artist on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. And Farm Aid, we want Margo back on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.”
After opening her Farm Aid set with “Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down,” Price covered Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,” and welcomed Billy Strings and Jesse Welles to the stage for a version of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm.” This week, Margo Price returns to the road to play the GRAMMY Museum, Ohana Festival and more, ahead of a headline tour of two dozen dates across North America this October and November, with tickets available at margoprice.net/tour.
