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Country star Margo Price to headline 2026 No Ka ‘Oi Songwriters Festival

Making her Maui debut at the 2026 No Ka 'Oi Songwriters Festival in Wailea, Grammy-nominated country star Margo Price has a fond memory of playing with Willie Nelson at his North Shore home.

"I'm very excited to have my first show there," said Price. "I've only played 'pass the guitar around Willie's living room,' which is not a bad first gig. This is the first time to actually play a show, so it's going to be very special."

Presented by the Heart and Hook Foundation to benefit the Lele Aloha Foundation and Maui Family YMCA Music Program, the festival lineup includes Lori McKenna, Riley Green, Ernest, Randy Houser, Liz Rose, Lukas Nelson, Phil Barton and Gail Swanson.

Having previously recorded with Willie, Lukas and Micah Nelson, Price expects she might collaborate with Lukas Nelson at the fest. "We've sung together a lot in the past," she said. "I love Lukas and Micah and all the Nelsons."

The country artist released the protest album "Days of Unrest" in July. Joined by Joan Baez and musicians from Memphis Mariachi, Price recorded a heartfelt version of Woody Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)" about the death of deported migrant farm workers.

Other highlights included the Mexican folk standard "De Colores," Blaze Foley's protest song "Oval Room" about Ronald Reagan, the Charlie Daniels Band's tune "Long Haired Country Girl" with Billy Swan and a country-rock version of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm."

"It came together very cosmically," Price explained. "We started adding some of these songs to our live set, and people were coming to the merch table asking, 'Where can we get 'Maggie's Farm'? Where can we get 'Oval Room'?' My sister, Kylie, works the merch at my shows, and she kept saying, 'You've got to record these songs. Everybody wants them.'"

Price also released a video for "Deportee," highlighting ICE raids.

"Everything that's going on right now with ICE and all these detention centers and children being separated from their families, Joan and I wanted to record it," she said. "I got a mariachi band from Memphis to back us up, and we donated a portion of the proceeds of the album to the Florence Project, which is a nonprofit that helps people that don't have representation and are battling immigration."

Price was thrilled to have Baez sing with her on the song. "She's just everything to me, and I just feel completely in awe of the whole experience and getting to sing it with her live," said Price.

Price said the album takes a stand against some of the biggest abuses of our time. "It's truly devastating everything that we're seeing day in and day out," she said. "I know it's not an easy path to walk, but I think we've all got to stick together. Music is one of the things that can really change people's hearts and minds, and books and film. It's so important that we continue to use our voices and not be silenced by fear. I know a lot of people choose to remain kind of apolitical, but it's really a different time these days. We're really up against a lot, and we're seeing exactly what's happening right in front of our faces."

What has it been like for her as a bit of a maverick in the country music world?

"Maverick sounds better than outsider," she said. "I like shaking things up, and I think you've got to push the borders. What seems really radical right now is not going to seem so radical in the future, I hope. I've always looked up to people like Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash, people who wanted to push the boundaries a bit."

Price is also a fan of Willie Nelson, who's a part-time resident on Maui. She is on the board of Farm Aid, and he sang on her album, "All American Made."

"They just don't make them like Willie no more," she said. "He really shows you how to live with compassion and give back. I am so in awe of everything that he's done for Farm Aid, and being able to keep that legacy going is massive. He's an example of not only how to be a wonderful, down-to-earth musician, but just how to be a good human."

At age 20 with about $100 to her name, Price dropped out of college and moved to Nashville, dreaming of a life in music.

"I was very broke, and I kept losing my job and wrecking my car," she recalled. "There was a lot of things against me when I first arrived in town."

Playing in local bands, she even pawned her wedding ring and sold her car to self-finance her debut studio album, "Midwest Farmer's Daughter," which was critically acclaimed as one of the best albums of 2016.

Since then, she has been nominated three times for a Grammy, been a guest on albums by Loretta Lynn, Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams, and sung on tributes to Leon Russell ("Stranger in a Strange Land"), Tom Petty ("Ways to be Wicked") and Nelson ("Shotgun Willie").

Her Grammy-nominated album "Hard Headed Woman" in 2025 featured a tribute to the late Hana resident Kris Kristofferson, with her song "Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down" inspired by how Kristofferson comforted Sinead O'Connor when she was once booed on stage at Madison Square Garden.

"I got to hang out with Kris several times," she said. "I've been to the Hana home several times. I performed with Kris at Glastonbury and the Newport Folk Festival, and I was at Willie's for his last Thanksgiving. He was such a maverick. Talk about somebody who just came in and changed the face of Nashville and wrote beautiful, deep, poetic songs. I think the way that he championed human rights, stood up for Sinead O'Connor when people were booing her, put his arm around her and just showed solidarity, it was so special."

Price has been described as a modern outlaw country star. Does she view herself in the continuum of that influential movement?

"I suppose I do because the alternative is kind of the more pop country, bro countryside, and I definitely don't fit into that. The outlaw label, although invented by the press, fits me well because I do like to do things my own way."

Price will be one of the headliners of the 2026 No Ka 'Oi Songwriters Festival, opening at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort.

Tickets are $35. A free rotating songwriter showcase will be at 4 p.m. Nov. 5 at Three's Bar & Grill, 5:30 p.m. at Kahale's and at 7:30 p.m. at Maui Brewing Company. More information is available at nokaoisongwritersfestival.com.