HARDY Teases New Song About The Death Of “Bro Country”

Things have changed a lot since HARDY got his start in Nashville.

The genre-bending country rock artist got his first #1 single not as an artist but as a songwriter with “Up Down,” which was a hit for Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line back in 2018. He would go on to have hits with songs like “I Don’t Know About You” by Chris Lane, FGL’s “Simple,” “God’s Country” by Blake Shelton, and quite a few Morgan Wallen tracks before breaking out as an artist himself with his 2020 debut album A Rock.

Obviously things have changed a lot in country music since HARDY broke into the music industry writing “bro country” hits for other artists. The sound has swung back towards traditional country music and storytelling, and away from the bonfires and dirt roads and Fireball and girls riding shotgun in cutoff jeans and the hundreds of other worn out tropes that we had to deal with ad nauseum back in those days.

Now, bro country definitely isn’t “dead.” There are still a few artists out there desperately clinging to it like a Nashville bachelorette clings to their vape and their High Noons. But I can’t think of anybody who’s still making “bro country” and having more than a moderate degree of success. (And I can already hear the comments: No, Morgan Wallen is not still making “bro country.” Just because it’s pop country or rap doesn’t mean it’s bro country).

But anyway, all that to say, HARDY has no doubt picked up on the changes in country music since he got his start. And he just teased a new song that he wrote that addresses the shift in sound that he’s seen during his time as a songwriter and an artist.

“A lot of you may not know this, but I started my career in Nashville as a songwriter, and my first hits were with Morgan Wallen, Chris Lane, Florida Georgia Line, and needless to say, I was a part of the bro country era.

But right now there’s a shift happening in Nashville, and there’s a lot of new music out there that is just a big shift and a new change, and I wrote a song about it, so this song’s called Bro Country.”

The song, appropriately enough, called “Bro Country,” mentions several of those common elements that we heard in all the bro country songs of the mid-2010s, while acknowledging that those are no longer the predominant themes in country music:

“Bro country, you damn sure could paint
A Friday night picture full of bombshells and drinks
You turned left of center
Into people like Hank, Haggard, and Cash and Jones
But don’t good dogs always come home?

No disrespect, yeah don’t get me wrong
I’ve been that drunk redneck singing your songs
But whiskey and bandits
Outlaws with long hair
Yeah, we’re back with a vengeance
With a fist in the air
It’s so bittersweet, shutting that Fireball
And cut-offs, and jacked up truck door
But bro, country
Don’t sound like you anymore”

@hardy

Some of y’all may not know this, but I started my career in Nashville as a songwriter, writing my first hits for my buddies like FGL, Morgan Wallen, Cole Swindell, Chris Lane, etc. I know my way around a bro country song and I owe a lot to that era. But the vibe in country music has shifted lately, and I wrote a song about it. This one’s called BroCountry. #NewMusic #Unreleased #CountryMusic #CountryCountry

♬ original sound – HARDY

I’ve got to give him credit for the “bro, country” wordplay in the chorus there. It makes for an interesting reflection on the way country music has changed over the past few years, and it’s all the more interesting that it came from one of the biggest players in the bro country era.

Now, do I think that bro country will eventually come back? Sure. Country music always goes through shifts, and eventually that party sound is going to become popular again.

But right now, I’m glad that we’ve gone the other direction – and even HARDY recognizes it.The post HARDY Teases New Song About The Death Of “Bro Country” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.