The singer-songwriter born Michael Hardy grew up in Mississippi, living life like a country song; then he moved to Nashville to pen hits for the likes of Florida Georgia Line and Morgan Wallen before branching out as an artist in his own right. These days, his hand is all over country radio—if there’s a slick-sounding country hit whose verses tumble cleverly into hooks, chances are that HARDY’s name is somewhere in the credits. Where his solo work has often split the difference between his two passions, rock and country, the title of his third EP leaves no room for ambiguity—this is COUNTRY!, goddamnit! Hence the buck on the wall of his grandpa’s hunting cabin, the girlfriends with guns, the cold ones cracked at 5 pm sharp. But HARDY’s got a knack for getting meta with it too: On “Favorite Country Song,” he runs through a list of hits from Merle Haggard, Keith Whitley, and Hank Williams Jr. before declaring his all-time favorite as the sound of wind in the pines, crickets in the creek, and whippoorwills singing of summer.