Recommended tracks: “Y’all Need Jesus,” “Dog Years,” “We’re All Gonna Die”
Artists you might like: Luke Combs, ERNEST, Post Malone
HARDY’s COUNTRY! COUNTRY! goes down like a shot of whisky: smooth at first, but it hits harder the longer you sit with it. It’s gritty and honest, making it a perfect reflection of an artist who refuses to let genres define his career. The Mississippi native wrapped up the JIM BOB World Tour with a show at Madison Square Garden, the word’s most famous arena, just in time to launch a new era: COUNTRY! COUNTRY!. He’s long been an underrated gem in the music industry, but hopefully this LP finally wakes people up to just how talented he is as a storyteller in country music.
HARDY knows how to write a hit. Just look at the receipts: Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country,” Florida Georgia Line’s “Simple,” Morgan Wallen’s “More Than My Hometown,” “Up Down,” “Sand in My Boots,” and more. Like it or not, the biggest names in country music owe a lot of their success to him.
Despite his achievements, he’s often criticized for riding the wave of Wallen’s success, a narrative he addresses in “Y’all Need Jesus.” The 35-year-old is upfront about what it takes to make it in the music industry when he sings, “I sold my soul and gave up on Music Row,” but stands firm in his identity with “Quit!! don’t have shit on mockingbird & THE CROW.” By singing “Damn, I rode Morgan’s coattails all the way to the radio,” he pokes fun at the criticism and makes it clear that he’s not bothered by it. He cleverly brushes off the haters, urging critics to go touch grass with “Listen, outside’s the first place but church is the second place you should go.”
The “TRUCK BED” singer has always been the type to wear his heart on his sleeve when it comes to what matters most, so it makes perfect sense that he’d dedicate more than four minutes to the furry friends who become family on “Dog Years.” The track was written nearly a decade before its release, long before he secured a publishing deal. It reemerged when he performed it at a fundraiser for Miranda Lambert’s MuttNation, igniting a passionate campaign for its release. Good luck getting through it without a couple of tears falling.
Death pops up all over the LP, but HARDY’s not turning it into some dramatic soap opera. Instead, he acknowledges its presence without letting it hijack the vibe, because after all, death is inevitable. That’s especially obvious on “Goodbye,” a stripped-down track that reminds us to “go to Paris, drink a beer on the roof, hook up on some ferris wheel, and get matching tattoos” while we still can. Inspired by both the birth of his daughter and the loss of his grandfather, HARDY uses the song to wrestle with the fragility of life without getting stuck in the heaviness of it. After all, who wants to look back on their life with regret? “I’ll be damned if regret’s what I think when I think of us / I need a heart full of memories,” he sings.
While questioning simple fears that hold us back like the “tattoo you are scared to get,” HARDY encourages us to push our hesitations out the window and embrace the possibilities life has to offer on “We’re All Gonna Die.” The lyric “twenty years weighing down your bank account and a fast car on your mind” perfectly sums up the push and pull between obligation and freedom. The reminder that “we’re all gonna die” becomes an invitation to “see what this rock has got to give” before the clock runs out.
“I’d Go Crazy Too” showcases a more empathetic side to the country singer. He could’ve leaned into revenge, and at first, it sounds like he might. But instead, the song explores an ex-lover losing his sanity after losing a girl who has “a smile like an angel” and a “heart like Jesus.” But rather than turning the song into a fight, he steps back and sees the bigger picture. “If she left me, I’d go crazy too,” he admits. It’s not about forgiveness; it’s about understanding how powerful love and loss can be.
If I could make one note, it’d be to close out the album with “Luckiest Man Alive.” The country singer shows his gratitude for the simple things in life — “Acres in the country / Shine in a jug / Hole with some honey and a boat with a plug / Angel that loves me like you wouldn’t believe.” It’s a celebration of the little things that make life worth living.
But the album actually ends with “Everybody Does,” a strong reminder that no matter our background, we all share one certainty: we all die. His music isn’t just about one person’s journey — it’s about what we all go through, making it a universal truth we can all understand and relate to.
