The title of
The Mockingbird & THE CROW
represents the two sides of
Hardy
's personality: the former represents the country crooner that lies deep inside; the latter is the rocker yearning to fly. If you have trouble telling the two sides apart,
offers a handy typographical shorthand by setting all of his country material in a lower case font and his rockers in all caps. Musically, there are differences too, mainly lying in how
is eager to let himself or guest
Jeremy McKinnon
bellow like it was 1999. Not that the Mockingbird section doesn't sound more than a little bit like
Kid Rock
.
favors country cliches learned through Southern rock, hip-hop filtered through nu metal and pop he heard on television, a blend that gives
a distinctly commercial bent no matter how he claims not to be offering a "Radio Song." That he hits all of his marks with a deadening thud only emphasizes that this self-styled rebel knows exactly how to play the game. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine