I’m not sure what this is, but I kinda love it.
Earlier this week, HARDY announced that he was officially dropping his half country, half rock album, the mockingbird & THE CROW.
I had a feeling this may be coming eventually, considering he’s dropped the head bangers “SOLD OUT,” and “JACK,” along with the kickass murder ballad “wait in the truck” with Lainey Wilson.
Judging by HARDY’s past work, this project is right up his alley and has been a long time coming, as his music is this perfect combination of both country, and rock.
Earlier this week the man released the title track to the album, and boy, talk about one helluva single to prepare us for what’s to come when the album drops on January 30th next year.
The song kicks off like a normal country song, as it’s a mini biography about how he got his start in country music, moving to Nashville, and becoming a singer/songwriter.
He refers himself to a “mockingbird,” saying that he got hung up on singing and writing songs that everybody knows and sounds like everything else in Nashville when he first jumped on the scene.
However, the song does a complete 180, transitioning to this feel good song of deep reflection, to certified heavy metal head banger in about .2 seconds.
In the second half of the song, he refers to himself as “the crow,” noting the moment he realized that he was gonna be himself, and write and play music how he wants to.
“Since this album’s gonna be a half country and half, like rock album, I always wanted it to be a part of this album, and I ended up never writing the song. But I woke up today at like two in the afternoon and Jordan had a rock beat filled out, so I threw this idea out, and I was like, I really think this song could really tie the record together.
So we wrote a song, like a seven minute song today called ‘the mockingbird & THE CROW.’ And the song starts with like ‘mockingbird,’ and how I’m from Mississippi, which the state bird is the mockingbird, and how I’m the crow, and I repeat things that I’ve heard my whole life, and thats part of my songwriter thing and who I am.
And then the song slowly transitions into the crow, which is the rock and roll character that flies his own path, just like as the crow flies and that whole thing, and so we wrote it today. And Joey and Seth freaked out over the idea.”
Boy, it’ll have you ready to run through a brick wall.
It’s easy to see that HARDY has a chip on his shoulder in this one, and how could he not?
He moved to Nashville, and cut his teeth for years trying to make a name for himself, and now he’s one of the most recognizable names in all of mainstream country music at the moment.
Whether or not you’re a fan, you have to respect a guy who’s giving the middle finger to the Nashville machine, and putting out music how he wants to, which is still pretty rare in mainstream country music these days.
Check it out:
And while we’re on the subject of HARDY, keep him in and his band in your thoughts and prayers, as they’re still recovering from the horrific tour bus accident, where they ran off the side of the road after playing a show in Bristol, Tennessee, knocking everybody on the bus unconscious.
