Song Review – HARDY’s “here lies country music”

HARDY. ERNEST. To be honest, my country music brain can’t seem to separate the two. They both go by only one name. They both insist it’s spelled in all caps. They’re both branches on the Morgan Wallen tree in large measure. They both are mainstream country songwriters who are unafraid of mixing rock and hip-hop into their music. And they both will randomly haul off and record a straight up traditional country song that throws your world for a loop and has you wondering just what the hell you’re supposed to think about them.
A couple of weeks ago, HARDY announced a new album called The Mockingbird and THE CROW to be released on January 20th, 2023, and released three preview songs with it. One of them is called “here lies country music,” and similar to ERNEST’s “Flower Shops,” it’s a straight ahead traditional country song. Composed as a (*Spoiler Alert*) dream sequence where HARDY laments the death of country music, it has compelled the ears and hearts of many traditional country music fans, some of whom are just happy to get the song, and some that are conflicted because the author is, well, HARDY.
However, the difference between “here lies country music,” and something like ERNEST’s “Flower Shops” for example, is that just like so many of these mainstream country songs that veer into the traditional country realm, “here lies country music” still leans on list-like lyrics and radio friendly buzzwords. We’ve seen this over and over. Music Row artists can get a lot of the sounds and sentiments right. But they just can’t kick the sauce of writing in a way to ingratiate what they’re doing to shallow listeners and radio playlists.
“Trucks ran out of red dirt roads
And beer quit getting you drunk”
Jesus, Jack Daniels, and the names of old country songs also make it into the lyrics of “here lies country music,” checking most all of the boxes of checklist country writing.
That’s not to say “here lies country music” isn’t a good song. The steel guitar and sentiment are spot-on, and the writing is smart. What a breath of fresh air it would be if you were listening to 98.1 SUCK and something like this came on. But of course, many who find appeal in a song like this wouldn’t be caught dead listening to corporate country radio in the first place, and those that tune into the Bobby Bones morning zoo will find this song more of a curiosity as opposed to a banger.
No doubt that HARDY is a clever writer. He proved that well before “here lies country music.” He’s also graced with something that most mainstream country performers and songwriters otherwise seem to be impervious to: self-awareness. This is most emblematic in the title track to his upcoming album that he released right beside “here lies country music.”
“I’m a Mockingbird
Singing songs that sound like other songs you’ve heard
Like friday nights, and headlights on some backroad red dirt
And how Mississippi’s home
I’ve always been a mockingbird
But now I’m a mockingbird with a microphone”
That is the ultimate issue with “here lies country music,” and so many of the songs from the mainstream. It’s such a copycat business, and they can’t wean themselves off the cliché’s to save their lives. That is why when listeners get a whiff of someone like Zach Bryan or Tyler Childers, it’s life-altering.
Later in the song “The Mockingbird & THE CROW,” HARDY rebels against being a copycat as the song takes a dramatic rock and roll turn. The new HARDY album is being sold as half hard rock, half country, with the title song being where the two are bisected. If this is the case, it gives country fans something to look forward to on the first half of the album, with “here lies country music” being a promising start.
But talking about being a cliché, lamenting the hypothetical death of country music, and actually doing something about it are two entirely different things. HARDY is on the right track, including his current radio single with Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck.” We’ll have to see if the Mockingbird potion of his upcoming album is more of the same, or the same ol’ same ol’ of mainstream country clichés. Overall though, “here lies country music” is not a band start.
7/10
October 24, 2022 @ 10:52 am
Sounds Like one of Chris Knight’s poppier songs, but shitty.
October 24, 2022 @ 11:33 am
Didn’t mean to copy your sentiment. A song like this wouldn’t have made the Top 100 charts in the 80’s or 90’s. “Here Lies Country Music” makes Achy Breaky Heart sound like a lyrical masterpiece. There is nothing special about this song. It’s the same 100 word magnet puzzle regurgitated in a different order. Musically we are living in a bad Stephen King type movie mixed with Idiocracy, stuck in artistically devoid time warp which explains why no great songs have on the radio have been written in the past 15 years. The entire industry is aimed at emotionally and intellectually stunted millennials who are content to scroll Instagram and watch the next superhero movie. Hardy or Ernest, whatever I don’t fucking care, is just a turd with more protein-filled nuts and seeds and a couple kernels of corn in it.
October 24, 2022 @ 1:20 pm
That “100 word magnet puzzle” description of modern country songwriting is pretty awesome. Well played, sir
October 24, 2022 @ 2:29 pm
Get your point, but you might have lost me at achy breaky heart for your example.
October 24, 2022 @ 2:04 pm
Chris us a genius
October 24, 2022 @ 2:31 pm
The first half of the sentence had me worried.
October 24, 2022 @ 11:10 am
10 seconds into ‘Here Lies Country Music’ and I would have changed the station. Sounds like Florida Georgia line, just less shitty.
October 24, 2022 @ 11:27 am
Fu** this guy can’t take him seriously and anyone calling themselves a actual country fan that enjoys him are liars
October 24, 2022 @ 4:42 pm
An “actual country fan” can have musical tastes other than just country. No, he’s not the next Keith Whitley, but I don’t mind a little rock once in a while. I think his self awareness draws me to him, even some of his cowrites for morgan wallen show the same self awareness. He doesn’t take himself seriously a lot of the time, so you don’t have to either. I try to keep my musical tastes broad because not all my buddies want to sit around a fire and jam out to Lovesick Blues. Nothing wrong with some lighthearted, dumbed down music once in a while. Except FGL. Or Luke Bryan. Fuck those guys.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:44 am
Never said they couldn’t and there’s plenty of lighthearted songs I like God Bless Texas,Watermelon Crawl,Ain’t Nothing Wrong With The Radio,If The Good Die Young,All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,Play Something Country,Party Crowd,Old Enough To Know Better,Hard Workin Man,3rd Rock From The Sun,White Lightning. I could go on but something being lighthearted isn’t a excuse to put on grade A garbage
October 25, 2022 @ 8:31 am
I died laughing on social media when one poster talked about how talented he is, he wrote Blake’s only ? hit God’s Country. Lolz And they gave him credit for making Wallen a success. Hmm…Jones is rolling over in his grave.
October 24, 2022 @ 11:43 am
Interesting subject HARDY is chasing in Here Lies Country Music. Sounds sad.
But.
The world of country music is wide and deep. It has been obscured many times, from “countrypolitan” to bro country and tractor rap. But there is infinite treasure running between Jimmie Rodgers and Colter Wall, between George Strait and Cody Johnson, between Patsy Cline and Brandy Clark, etc. Right up to right now.
Sorry I have to laugh at the idea that Florida-Georgia Line, bro country or any other passing trend is going to do any permanent damage to that legacy.
October 24, 2022 @ 1:17 pm
I don’t think HARDY is trying to say that some trend killed country music. I think he’s speaking more abstractly. He’s using the hypothetical death of country music as a way to revere it in sort of an epitaph, before waking up from a dream and realizing it’s still around.
October 24, 2022 @ 1:29 pm
I like, and agree with, that take on Here Lies Country Music. I guess I’m just sensitive to the slow motion epitaph of country music that’s been going on since forever. Yet here we are, in what is (to me) a great, prolonged eras of interesting country music (late 80’s alt-country right up to right now). And bro country has come and (almost) gone during that same period. Life’s rich pageant…
October 24, 2022 @ 12:33 pm
I think we’re giving this song too much credit here. I think this is just HARDY (who i agree is a very clever writer) hopping on the train of shitting on mainstream country because that is very popular right now. Sure he tossed steel guitar in the song. Doesn’t make the writing any less list-like and bro-country. “You can’t… be proud of where you’re from”? Bad country songs about hometowns are a dime a dozen. That one line in “mockingbird” is pretty self-aware, but that doesn’t change he still chooses to put out shitty songs like this one. This song blows big time. Unlike flower shops which rips.
You know what doesn’t blow, but in fact rips? The jeremy pinnell album from about a year ago. It’s called “goodbye LA” and it rips
October 24, 2022 @ 1:22 pm
I don’t think HARDY is trying to shit on mainstream country at all. I think his idea is to praise country music by presupposing its death, and everything we would lose if it went away. I’m also not seeing anyone giving the song any credit here, let alone too much. I agree that he’s taking list-like lyrics and imposing them on a traditional country song. But I also think comparing it to Florida Georgia Line or something is pretty ridiculous.
I had a ton of requests to review this song. It’s stimulated a lot of discussion. It’s not a great song, but it also deserved to be judged beside its peers. And beside it’s peers, it’s not bad.
October 24, 2022 @ 1:49 pm
What if the comparison is not to Florida Georgia Line writ large, but specifically to their song “Dirt,” which this site gave a fairly similar – and positive – review to. Sure, it’s a list song, but it also proved they could do a “real” country song, despite all their flaws. I actually think that comparison is apt.
October 24, 2022 @ 5:00 pm
This happens every time I review a mainstream country song. There is such culture shock with independent/traditional fans, they think they’re listening to some extreme pop track. If “here lies country music” went #1, it would be the most country #1 single on mainstream country radio in the last 15 years. That is because much of mainstream country radio is not country at all. Folks may not like this song and I get that. I certainly had plenty of negative to say about it. But there are a lot of folks that love it. There are a lot of folks that reached out and specifically request I review the song, and I think for the mainstream, it’s “not bad.” I don’t think judging it against FGL’s “Dirt” is really a fair comparison, because that’s such an outlier.
October 24, 2022 @ 6:55 pm
I’m one of those folks who like “here lies country music” (but this one also hates the all-lowercase title gimmick). I understand the criticism of the list aspect of the lyrics but not much of the other knocks being put on the song. Probably because I’ve got a far greater tolerance for mainstream country than Trigger or the average SCM reader.
Save the heavy artillery for another song from the forthcoming album that was released as a lyric video the same time as “here lies.” It’s called “TRUCK BED” (I hate that gimmick, too.) and turns the Auto-Tune to 11 on his voice and attaches it to a weird snap/trap/whatever instrumental track that may not contain one actual musical instrument.
I think the game being played here is getting as many “country” acts to cross over to other radio formats as possible without abandoning country (the way Taylor Swift did). Wallen is crossing over to pop, Kane Brown is crossing over to pop and urban, apparently Luke Combs is getting some adult contemporary airplay. My deepest fear is that all genres eventually merge into some mutant super-genre played on every damn station everywhere and country music’s mini-renaissance goes “r.i.p.” right then and there.
October 24, 2022 @ 1:53 pm
By giving it too much credit, i meant in your review (not everyone in the comments). I never compared it to FGL and agree it’s better, but i hope that’s not our bar with so many great options in or close to the mainstream these days.
I guess it just depends what you consider the song’s peers. I agree that next to radio country it’s not bad. But i think hardy’s peers extend far beyond that small group, and compared to the overall state of country/roots right now, i still think this sucks. Respect the review and love the discussion though
The jeremy pinnell album from last year rips pretty hard dontcha think
October 24, 2022 @ 1:04 pm
Super gross but it is going to sell
October 24, 2022 @ 1:37 pm
This guy and Morgan Wallen are an embarrassment to true country music. The crotch grabbing, hand/finger gestures and filthy language are enough to earn them a top spot among the most evil Rappers. Their music is trash and doesn’t come close to being labeled “Country”. Their target audience is the 13 to 21 year old Hip Hop, Pop & Rap music lovers. We’re witnessing the total destruction of Country music by the Woke Nashville music industry. It’s all about the Teeny Boppers who are spending the money.
October 24, 2022 @ 6:23 pm
There’s was a time when you weren’t meant to use the F bomb in country music, as Willie Nelson sang “Don’t ever cuss that fiddle boy”, but now there’s not much fiddle.
October 25, 2022 @ 12:59 pm
Ever since Bocephus and Kid Rock said you couldn’t use the F word, people have tried. Seriously, though, he’s GOT to lose the Bobby Bones glasses.
October 24, 2022 @ 2:03 pm
Brainiacs in Nashville have figured out how to kill ‘country’ …. now let’s do ‘Rap’
October 24, 2022 @ 2:09 pm
They’ve killed country…. now do rap
October 24, 2022 @ 3:01 pm
I DON’T KNOW WHY WE’RE YELLING
October 24, 2022 @ 4:44 pm
BECAUSE IT’S RELEASED BY BIG LOUD RECORDS
October 24, 2022 @ 3:06 pm
Alan Jackson did this song 1000 times better last year.
October 24, 2022 @ 3:37 pm
ACTUALLY its 98.7 KSUK 😉
October 24, 2022 @ 3:42 pm
HARDY lost me for a while with the Hixtape 2 stuff, but Wait in the Truck, this song, and Mockingbird have got me paying attention again
Hardy and Wallen have both shown some songwriting that’s reflective on the Nashville machine. Hardy’s recent Mockingbird and Crow song and Wallen’s Living the Dream are my favorite examples. Very little mainstream country songwriting speaks honestly on the industry or the role of an artist in the same way that rap (for example) does. If a song is remotely critical of Nashville, it’s an independent artist who’s bitter, not an artist who made it reflecting on the experience. The fact that some of the biggest names in the genre are turning their writing a little bit more in that direction is exciting to me.
October 24, 2022 @ 4:38 pm
Crap like this makes me glad to be old and irrelevant. This sounds like a Kids Bop Tribute To Kid Rock Country.
That ain’t a good thing.
October 24, 2022 @ 4:54 pm
Guess who ain’t gonna fill their shoes?
I don’t have a dog in this hunt, cause I don’t listen to the radio… but, Country it ain’t.
The music is okay, but the voice is a kids voice… it needs maturity, and a lot of it. Singing through your nose don’t make you Willie…
October 24, 2022 @ 6:05 pm
Mockingbird and The Crow sounds like it’s being performed by a Nickelback cover band.
October 24, 2022 @ 6:14 pm
HARDY does some interesting stuff, the song Mockingbird & The Crow is literally half country half rock, and gets heavier towards the end of the song, then there is Truckbed, which I would call more of a drunken redneck “pop-rock” song but it transitions also and gets heavier towards the end. Then there is Rednecker which sounds a lot more mainstream, but lyrically it’s not meant to be serious like “The Worst Country Song of All Time.”
In my opinion “here lies country music” is by far his best song so far.
October 24, 2022 @ 6:15 pm
County and post grunge on one album? Intriguing. Wait in the Truck did nothing for me. Unrealistic fantasy in every single way. This is at least interesting.
October 25, 2022 @ 9:21 am
What about fantasy has to be realistic?
October 24, 2022 @ 6:40 pm
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Fix that typo !
October 25, 2022 @ 12:58 am
“Overall though, “here lies country music” is not a band start.”
October 24, 2022 @ 7:59 pm
This guy is saying real country music is dead !. All this crap coming out sucks. Used to be you could tell the Greats !!!. They all had a different sound, & I could tell who each of them were !!. Now it’s so Generic, me, & a lot of my friends, won’t listen to it anymore. We have our favorites from the past on DVD, & from Internet. We just lost one of those Greats, ‘Loretta’, we love & miss you. Conway, George, Tammy, Hank,Jim, Marty, & so on, & so on. This new group will never fill that gap, we baby boomers crave in Country Music. We had the best, & you can’t compare then, to now. You may not think we are important, but, around 75,000 of us retires everyday. Think on that????
October 24, 2022 @ 9:04 pm
Dude…Trig, my perception of you is that you should know better than to call this, and I quote, “a straight ahead traditional country song”. It’s like you’re so desperate for victories, that you just keep lowering the bar. I get the impression that it makes you feel so good to declare something “traditional country”, that you’re willing to compromise your standards to get that good feeling as often as possible.
This dude has the same ol nasally, heavy-on-the-twang-light-on-the-country, singing voice that we’ve heard for 15 years now. The song has the same ol cut beat that you could rap to, if you wanted. Countrier than not remotely country, is still not country.
October 24, 2022 @ 10:18 pm
I think this is a traditional country song. I don’t see it as a “victory” of any sort, and didn’t call it such. Just because you don’t like the dude’s voice doesn’t mean it’s not country. I don’t think it’s a great song. I brought up numerous issues with it. I said it was an okay song for the mainstream.
I swear, I can’t write about anything these days without someone flipping out about it. Numerous people asked my opinion about this song. So I gave my opinion. Other people have other opinions, and I respect that. This is a review of a song. That’s all.
October 25, 2022 @ 1:29 am
I’m not flipping out; I’m just trying to keep you honest.
I’m not saying me not liking his voice means it’s not country. I mentioned his voice because he sounds like every other bro out there. All the dudes that sing like this, also record the same sounding songs, none of which are C(c)ountry. This sound is the zeitgeist, and I think you’ve heard it so often for so long now, that you’ve adjusted your bar, unintentionally.
If you want to call this song, “not bad for the style”, that’s fine. But, “straight ahead traditional country”? Come on, Trig; I know you know better.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:03 am
This is a traditional country song. It builds from the acoustic guitar, the featured instrument is steel guitar, it’s a traditional country rhythm and chord progression, and the lyrics involve country themes. You may not like it, and the commenters here may not like it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not country. It doesn’t feature hip-hop phrasing, electronic beats, rock guitar, pop sensibility, nothing. It’s a traditional country song with derivative lyrics.
October 25, 2022 @ 9:50 am
You’ve either adjusted your bar, or I’ve misunderstood it all these years.
October 25, 2022 @ 4:48 pm
Honkey, what “genre” would you say it’s closest to? MUSICALLY speaking….
Culturally (for lack of a better word) I get what you’re saying.
Personally I hate it, even to 90s standards.
January 13, 2023 @ 8:33 pm
What a plastic conception. There is more to a song being real or “traditional” country then just having common country instruments. I could name a million songs that have all the “country” instruments and use a standard country progression, that are NOT country songs. The lack of integrity and cheap usage of tropes is what keeps this song from being country. Somehow quality artists have used the same cliches all through countries history, and never had it sounding as cheap and lacking as HARDY.
October 24, 2022 @ 11:45 pm
Honky, just came across this guy earlier today. Not sure if you’re familiar with him, Zach Top but definitely getting some Kevin Denney vibes. https://youtu.be/5z6FQB8CwQs
October 25, 2022 @ 5:58 am
So weird to hear someone singing about country music being dead when it is thriving. There’s so much good stuff coming out all the time. It’s just that 98.1 SUCK (as you so eloquently put it) have little to no freedom to play independent music.
So what we get instead is this weird simulacrum of traditional country music. You get Thomas Rhett name dropping awesome country songs in a mainstream song that sounds like crap. You have Cole Swindell singing “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” instead of the American Aquarium cover of the actual song Heads Carolina, which is what alt-country fans were listening to last year. You get little hints of fiddle and steel sprucing up an otherwise vapid song like Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off. And on an on.
The 2020’s are shaping up to be better than the 2010’s in the mainstream, I will give them that. But that’s a pretty low bar. There’s a pretty easy solution. They should just play indie country instead of stuff like Country Music is Dead.
October 25, 2022 @ 6:21 am
He has a song with Midland and Marty Stuart that is pretty good.
October 25, 2022 @ 6:55 am
Other than the steel guitar, there is not much really country about this song. Basically a acoustic song with some computerized drum beats and the steal layered in to make it countryish. The theme is rehashed as the lyrics. Muscidine Bloodline’s Dispatch to 16th Ave released last year is similar in theme and far superior.
Good try from Hardy, but far from hitting the mark.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:03 am
There are no computerized drum beats on this song.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:18 am
Sounds like a standard drum loop to me. I can recreate the same thing in Garage Band or Logic Pro. Maybe I’m wrong. Could just be a bored drummer playing the same looping beat over and over again.
October 25, 2022 @ 11:10 pm
Seriously, not to be patronizing, but as a traditional country drummer, and someone who has worked in studios, and someone who has built a career upon calling out country artists for incorporating electronic drums beats into their music, I have absolutely no indication the drums in this song are anything other than a human playing a simple traditional country drum beat.
“Could just be a bored drummer playing the same looping beat over and over again. “
As I always say about playing drums in traditional country, the most difficult part is staying reserved and not doing too much. The drums aren’t supposed to be recognized. They’re just supposed to be there. That’s yet another indication this is a traditional country song. Even if it was rendered on garage band, it was done exactly the way a traditional country drum part on a traditional country song should be done.
October 26, 2022 @ 6:06 am
Alright Trigger. I won’t say we are in disagreement, because I honestly don’t think you or I know for sure if it’s a drummer or a drum loop. And I agree that there is more room for improvisation in rock or jazz or other formats. But even in country music with a subdued beat you will hear the drummer vary the fill. But perhaps that was not wanted here, so I’ll admit I may be wrong.
Honestly it’s all beside the point, which is that there is really no life to this song musically. It’s like a copy and paste of country sounds. And I’m not saying this because of a pre-determined dislike for Hardy. I actually kinda growing on the song with Lainey, and if I had to pick one of the songs you posted, I prefer Mockingbird. Hardy has the right to play whatever music he likes, and if he brings some fans to traditional country with his song, then great. I’m just giving an honest option of what his song sounds like to me.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:10 am
I thought of Dispatch too when I was listening to this. It captures the theme so much better. That’s kind of what I was driving at in my comment. Mainstream country seems to be copying independent country. American Aquarium covers “Heads Carolina,” 400k spins on Spotify… Next year here’s Cole Swindell name dropping Heads Carolina. Muscadine Bloodline compares Nashville to a murder scene, next year HARDY’s singing Here Lies Country Music. There must be other examples. I swear they’re all listening to independent country – the artists, the producers, even the suits.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:26 am
Alan Jackson and George Strait won the CMA for Song of the Year in 2001 for “Murder On Music Row” written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, and Larry Cordle had released his own version before that. When Muscadine Bloodline released “Dispatch to 16th Ave.” this song idea was already a trope and cliche, and I said that in my Muscadine review. Their publicist reached out to me all giddy about the song, thinking it was perfect for Saving Country Music. What I told them is that it would get trounced in the comments because people hate country protest songs because they’re so cliche at this point, and if you go back and look at the comments on Facebook, that’s pretty much what happened.
What a lot of people are missing here is that HARDY is mocking that “country music is dead” trope. That is why the theme of “Mockingbird” which he talks about in the title track to the upcoming album is important context and why I included that song here too. HARDY talks about how his job is to write songs that sound like other songs.
Also, HARDY is not saying that country music is dead. The song resolves basically like a dream sequence where he wakes up and is thankful that country music is not dead.
Also, if you understand HARDY’s approach here, you understand that he made this to be a traditional country song on purpose. It’s not because he’s a traditional country artist, it’s because that fits the theme of the song.
Again, I totally understand if folks don’t like the song. But there is some meta stuff going on here that is flying over the head of a lot of folks.
October 25, 2022 @ 7:43 am
Ah, well, I didn’t realize it was a cover, so now I’ll eat my humble pie. I wasn’t following mainstream country in 2001, and the reason I didn’t know about the ending to the Hardy song is because I bailed 2/3 of the way through. I think it’s pretty awful. But I’m not against mainstream country. You’ve highlighted a lot of mainstream artists on the blog who I agree are quite good. I didn’t like this one, but I mean, at least he’s trying to do something different.
October 25, 2022 @ 8:12 am
The problem I see with some of the comments here is that some associate a particular song with the body of work of the artist.
My questions are these. If one knew nothing of Hardy, and just heard this song in isolation, would you like it or not? Would it be acceptable country or not? Would it qualify as a straight-ahead country song or not?
I have this problem myself. When I hear a song I immediately began associating it with the artist and their body of work. It is hard to disassociate a song from the background of the artist. Even for such an astute music afficionado as myself.
October 25, 2022 @ 9:46 am
Ding ding ding.
I respect everyone’s opinion about music, and believe that you can’t argue opinion or taste.
But when you have people saying this song features electronic drums (it doesn’t), sounds like Florida Georgia Line 10 seconds in (it doesn’t), sounds like every pop country single on radio (it doesn’t), is irresponsible to call traditional country (it isn’t), then you know people are listening with their eyes, and not their ears, because objectively, these observances are false.
I don’t think this is some great song. 7/10, meaning “it’s okay” on a mainstream scale is not exactly high praise. But it in no way deserves some of the visceral reactions it is receiving. As a critic, I don’t have the luxury of casting off something at first glance just because I don’t like the artist. A lot of folks wanted to know my opinion, and if I had called it a Florida Georgia Line song with electronic drums, I would have been trounced by the other side of the country music cultural divide. Because it’s not true.
October 25, 2022 @ 2:29 pm
The drum beat may not be the traditional hip-hop or bro country beat, but it is almost surely a loop. Many drum loops sound like real drums. The tell tale sign here is that it is a looping beat and even the fills are exactly the same over and over again. A real drummer may keep a beat, but they vary they fills and ad lib occasionally. It’s not a crime, and I’m certain other artists I like use them. The point is that the song sounds like a acoustic guitar song that drum loops and steel guitar were added to for a country sound. It’s not a horrible song, but I just don’t get that natural traditional country feeling from it.
October 25, 2022 @ 11:13 pm
“A real drummer may keep a beat, but they vary they fills and ad lib occasionally.”
Again, not in traditional country. Your job is to NOT ad lib or add fills. That’s the art to playing traditional country drums. The temptation is to do more. Basically you’re saying, “these drums sound too much like traditional country drums, so they must be electronic.”
This is a traditional country song.
October 26, 2022 @ 3:43 am
This is not a traditional song. Your metric for calling it traditional is based on what the session players are doing. Lyrically and vocally this song is not traditional. Every genre uses basic chord structure. Country music doesn’t claim ownership of that.
October 25, 2022 @ 10:04 am
whenever I hear the mockingbird and THE CROW I just think of Evan Felker singing “Like a mockingbird, I sing my song/ stole it out right and play it all wrong
October 25, 2022 @ 4:21 pm
I think the song is ok. The writing isn’t great though. The mockingbird song is interesting. I like both parts of the song but not together but I see what he’s doing with it.
October 25, 2022 @ 5:09 pm
HARDY is taking himself too seriously already. Mockingbird and Crow could be on ‘worst song of the year’ lists. Listeners are collectively taking the middle finger you love to shove in our face and breaking it. So F*%K YOU and your version of country music.
October 26, 2022 @ 1:52 pm
Eh
That’s all I got
Eh
It sounds like a country rock song
Not totally country but not totally something else
The concept is cool but the execution is flawed
I’d rather listen to this than bro country
I don’t see why so many people are having a cow over it
October 27, 2022 @ 9:38 am
This sounds like the music equivalent of Walmart complain about mom and pop stores going out of business. Mainstream country fans who don’t think their mainstream country fans will love this.
October 27, 2022 @ 6:27 pm
The song is just… corny.
And that should be enough to dismiss it, even if it’s better than some other radio songs or making “meta” commentary about the business. HOWEVER…
1) The payoff of the dream conceit is too corny to justify any of it. He dreamed that a genre of music was dead and buried in the ground with an actual gravestone? And a headline said it died from a broken heart? And then he woke up in a cold sweat? Good songs shouldn’t make you cringe.
2) The fact that it’s still just a “list” song (as you mentioned) in a clever wrapper is also disqualifying.
3) If you listen to his list, he clearly doesn’t grasp the value of actual country music anyway. He’s mourning something he doesn’t understand. He is saying that country music is good for illustrating four things: Cheating, being proud of where you come from, trucks driving down red dirt roads, beer getting you drunk. That’s it? That’s what he was mourning?
Appreciate you doing the review, though, Trig. Interesting to hear. Differing opinions and discussions are what this site is supposed to be about.
January 20, 2023 @ 2:33 pm
Working as a tradesmen in the Northeast Rock music in some orm is always being played in jobsite settings. Today I had the not so distinct pleasure of hearing Hardys new song off his new album “Jack” on our local “active rock” radio station. Looks like he’s hoping to double dip, with his new countrified post grunge album.