HARDY’s New Album ‘Country! Country!’ Sees Rural Way of Life as Eternal and Under Threat

American country music exists as a kind of running textual commentary on our culture, whether wholesome or outlaw. As a subculture it is immensely strong and stable, able to cycle through times of adventurous genre-bending, then back toward its traditional roots in Western swing, bluegrass, and even mariachi music. It would be easy to construct a comprehensive social history of modern America through modern country music.

And I’ve been slightly haunted by this power of country music to serve as a kind of national documentary, and to speak out and prophesy about us, as I listen to the music of country’s arguably hottest act, HARDY, the all-caps stage name for Mississippi-born songwriter and performer Michael Hardy. For the past six years, he has been perhaps the most successful and influential country artist in America.

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Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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American country music exists as a kind of running textual commentary on our culture, whether wholesome or outlaw. As a subculture it is immensely strong and stable, able to cycle through times of adventurous genre-bending, then back toward its traditional roots in Western swing, bluegrass, and even mariachi music. It would be easy to construct a comprehensive social history of modern America through modern country music.

And I’ve been slightly haunted by this power of country music to serve as a kind of national documentary, and to speak out and prophesy about us, as I listen to the music of country’s arguably hottest act, HARDY, the all-caps stage name for Mississippi-born songwriter and performer Michael Hardy. For the past six years, he has been perhaps the most successful and influential country artist in America.