Tanya Tucker Knows When to Hold ’Em in 'Hard Luck' [Fresh Vid]

Tanya Tucker has experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows during her career in country music. Her new music video is a raucous proclamation that she’s no less of a badass than when she got her start in the industry as a teenager in the early 1970s. 

“Hard Luck” is the second single Tucker has released ahead of her new album While I’m Livin’, which is due Aug. 23. The LP is a collaborative effort with Brandi Carlile, Shooter Jennings, and Carlile’s frequent songwriting partners Tim and Phil Hanseroth. Carlile and the Hanseroths wrote most of the songs with Tucker (though “Hard Luck” was released as a single in 1979 by the Houston band Josefus), while Jennings and Carlile co-produced.

In the video for “Hard Luck,” directed by Chris Phelps, Tucker appears dressed head to toe in black, which complements her bright pink hair and vivacious, rebellious spirit. She and Jennings stroll into Inglewood’s American Legion Post 82 on what seems to be a particularly rowdy night. Carlile shows her concern as Tucker and Jennings appear to throw caution to the wind time and time again. Tucker reveals a method to her madness, as she sings: “I was foolish and I wouldn’t heed / I knew my crazy ways were bound to succeed / Nobody’s fault and I won’t pass the buck / It was my own hard head and a little bit of / Hard luck.”

The video closes with Tucker and Jennings hopping onto a motorcycle as Carlile looks on, desperately waving two helmets in their direction. As she races out of sight, Tucker sends a clear message: Neither she, nor her music, can be contained.

2019 has been a bountiful year for Tucker. She will soon be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and she recently gave a well-received performance at the CMT Awards. Such successes have set the stage for While I'm Livin', which will be her first record composed of completely new material in 17 years. It may be a musical resurgence, but from Tucker’s point of view, she hadn’t disappeared.

“I really don’t like the word ‘comeback.’ I’ve really never gone away!” she recently told Susannah Young in an interview for Vinyl Me, Please. “But doing this album does give me the opportunity to be heard by young people who may know my name, but not my music.”

Watch “Hard Luck” above and watch the music video for "The Wheels of Laredo," the first single off of While I’m Livin', below. You can also pre-order While I’m Livin’ here, and catch Tucker in person when she performs during AmericanaFest in September.