Hardy @ The Criterion

The sound is big. The towns are small. And the name is HARDY.Big Loud artist HARDY grew up on classic rock in Philadelphia, Miss., a town of about 7,500 in the country setting of Neshoba County. So when fans hear the music on his four-song EP for the label, ThisOle Boy, they’re getting the real deal. The songs are bold and proud, the voice is commanding and the lyrics are centered on farms, in the backwoods and mostly in America’s heartland.“I love that lifestyle, and that’s what I want to talk about,” he says unapologetically. “I’m not really a love song dude. If I’m going down that road, it’s a song like ‘This Ole Boy’ where it’s a redneck-in-love kind of thing. People that are like me, or people who still live in small towns, still love that and want to hear that. That’s why I’m who I am as an artist.”HARDY’sartistic identity is notably focused on This Ole Boy. His voice is gritty in “4×4,” soulful in the background vocals of “This Ole Boy” and edgy in the stack of HARDY harmonies in “Rednecker.” The productions’ mix of swamp rock and country walks a line between strutting sarcasm and communal congeniality. And the incessant word play –where else does “quatro” rhyme with “macho?” –marksHARDY as a smart guy with an uncommon sense of humor.Some of those traits are a direct result of his songwriting prowess. HARDY moved to Nashville to pursue theelusiveart of matching words with chords and melodies, and 2018 became a breakthrough year for him. He was one of three writers on the Morgan Wallen/Florida Georgia Line collaboration “Up Down,” a #1platinum-sellingcountry single built on HARDY’s original idea: “We live it up down here.”He snagged another hit as a co-writer of FGL’s “Simple.” And he took part in Seth Ennis’ “Call Your Mama,” a lump-in-your-throat ballad that started its chart journey in fall 2018.In fact, HARDY was so focused on writing that he didn’t really pursue his budding recording career. It actually came looking for him.

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