Hardy Is a Stone’s Throw From Stardom With ‘A Rock’

Two years ago, few had heard of a Nashville songwriter going by the name Hardy. But today, he’s one of the hottest hit makers in Music Row’s trend-sensitive inner circle — and with his debut album, A Rock, he could solidify himself as an artist, too.

Featuring a grungy hard-rock sound and 12 smart, self-penned tracks, the album shows off a singer-songwriter with a style of his own, and it arrives while the whole industry is watching. Hardy’s currently nominated for two ACM Awards (including Songwriter of the Year), he just won CMA Song of the Year with Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country,” and he’s scoring cuts with everyone from Thomas Rhett and Florida Georgia Line to Gary Allan, who picked “Waste of a Whiskey Drink” as his comeback single.

All that happened in the last 12 months and there’s plenty more — like his current single “One Beer” featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson, which is climbing the charts, and last summer’s superstar-studded Hixtape Vol. 1., which found big names like Keith Urban and rock icon Zakk Wylde saying “yes” to a collab. He’s clearly doing something right, and his specific brand of country writing is beginning to make a mark — similar to the way Dean Dillon did for George Strait or The Peach Pickers did for Luke Bryan. But why?

If there’s a defining trait to Hardy’s work, it’s that the Mississippi native is all about “owning” who he is — especially his backwoods background, and all the things that go with it. To him, the word “redneck” is a badge of honor.

“It’s not derogatory at all,” he says, speaking from his woodsy home in Joelton, Tennessee, which he affectionately calls “Quarantine City.” “My biggest thing with that is if you fall into the category, just own it. Being a hick or an uneducated country person is very frowned upon, but I think the world can actually learn a lot from people who live out there and do it their way.

“Theres a lot of stereotypes about those people, but I think sometimes the stereotypes are being thrown around by people who don’t even know somebody who’s a quote-unquote ‘redneck,'” he goes on. “I think you should own and embrace yourself for being that kind of person, and that’s not something that’s done a lot.”

Hardy’s done that himself in loud-and-proud style, taking his debut single, “Rednecker,” to Gold-certified success, and also with other tracks off his first two EPs like “4×4″ and “Where to Find Me.” But that’s nothing new in country. The key seems to be finding ways to talk about those familiar “redneck” themes in fresh ways, and with A Rock Hardy went all in. Fist pumping identity anthems like “Where You At” and the aptly-titled “Unapologetically Country as Hell” are two examples, but the album’s first track is really all the evidence needed.

Simply titled “Truck,” it takes a handful of familiar “bro-country” lingo and twists it like a rope into something thoughtful. Rather than a basic ode to how awesome his jacked-up half-ton is, Hardy uses it as a microscope to look deeper. Like a detective at a crime scene, he examines what’s in the truck and what those clues say about its owner — how he works, how he plays, what he believes and who he loves. “It’s true you can’t judge a book by it’s cover / But you can sure judge a country boy by his truck,” he sings.

“I just think theres only a handful of things you can say in a country song,” he explains. “I love you, I hate you, I miss you … my truck is big. The best way to do it is to find your own personal way to say it that has never been said before.”

Another part of what makes tracks like “Truck” stand out is the full-throttle rock sound found on every song. Hardy worked with producer Joey Moi on that, a guy who knows a few things about the subject. He famously helped Nickelback perfect their hard-rock sound, which in turn became a cultural benchmark for a whole generation of listeners, Hardy included. He grew up on rockers like Nickelback and Stone Temple Pilots, but also grunge icons like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, and it all comes together on A Rock — even helping inspire the name. Hardy had veered toward beat-driven rural R&B on previous EPs, but has now made the conscious decision to rock harder than the rest.

“That’s just a part of who I am,” he says. “I grew up listening to rock-n-roll, and I guess my artistic instinct is to rock out. So for lack of a better term, I’m just doing me.”

Elsewhere, “Boots” works like a blistering rock ballad, inspired by an over-served evening with his girlfriend in New York City and not being able to get his too-tight snakeskin boots off before bed (she was pissed at his drunken behavior and refused to help, he explains with a laugh). “Give Heaven Some Hell” encourages a gone-too-soon compatriot to “own it” in the afterlife, and the title track opens up an epic portal of country boy contemplation, all about the various rocks that our lives seem to orbit. All of it came straight from Hardy’s pen, along with co-writers/buddies like Hunter Phelps, Jake Mitchell and Smith Ahnquist.

“I don’t think I’ll ever cut an outside song,” he says. “I mean, it would have to be life changing or something. That’s just the writer in me.”

Then there’s “One Beer” (featuring Alaina and Dawson), which effectively tells a whole family’s saga in three-and-a-half minutes of refreshing redneck storytelling. It’s currently inside country radio’s Top 20 and rising, and once again proudly depicts the simple dignity of a middle-American, middle-class world, calling out mass-market staples like Bud Light and CVS rather than top-shelf tequila or shopping on Rodeo Drive. And it’s now the biggest hit of his young career.

“I don’t know the last time a song like this has popped up, maybe [Kenny Chesney’s] “There Goes My Life,” Hardy says. “People get bored and want to hear something different.”

Something different is right. Nashville tends to run in cycles, and at the moment Hardy is different enough to be on the upswing. He’s figured out how to make “owning” it work, and A Rock may be just the beginning.

“It’s another chapter of me, and it’s getting a little bit deeper into what I have to say,” he says. “I put my heart and soul into it, and I just hope I get some love in return.”