HARDY brought his song “Bottomland” to life on Tuesday evening (Nov. 11) with a soaring performance of the soul-stirring anthem on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Wearing a Bottomland camo Nuthin Fancy Co hat, a light blue pearl snap shirt, and denim jeans, the genre-bending superstar sat on a tree stump in a dark, wooded setting. The ground was scattered with leaves, and behind him sat an empty wooden chair draped with a Bottomland camo jacket. The country hitmaker allowed his vocal talents to be put on full display with a powerful performance of his COUNTRY! COUNTRY! track, belting out the lyrics to the southern hymn.
“I am just a country boy/ Where I come from didn’t have no choice/ But what I’ve done well or so I’m told/ So baby wear my watch, baby sell my gold,” the 35-year-old Mississippi native delivered on the first verse.
As the performance built toward its emotional climax, his vocals continued to rise, growing stronger with each verse.
“So bury me in bottom land/ With my grandpa’s rifle in my hand/ Lord just take me as I am/ And bury me in bottom land/ And bury me in bottom land,” HARDY sang, letting his distinctive vocals soar and giving goosebumps to everyone watching.
Produced by Zach Abend, “Bottomland” finds HARDY asserting his territory deep in rural soil as he sends out a heartfelt plea to the one above that he be buried in the same ground that raised him after he takes his final breath.
“Bury me in bottomland/ With my Grandpa’s rifle in my hand/ Lord just take me as I am/ and Bury me in bottomland,” the Philadelphia, Mississippi native sings the opening lines of the slow-tempo, stripped-back song, showcasing his signature gritty vocals and echoing his country pride over stunning, sober-tinged organs and the beautiful sounds of nature.
HARDY expresses that he wants to be laid to rest as his true self, no fancy clothes or formalities, just the way he lived as a true “country boy.” He sings, “I don’t care which box/ don’t care which stone/ All I care’s what I got on/ Don’t need no suit, don’t need no tie/ I don’t wanna be hard to recognize.”
Reflecting how the 34-year-old hitmaker was brought up, “Bottomland” captures the rural spirit of someone who loves to hunt and spend time in the deer stand. HARDY wrote “Bottomland” alongside Abend, Smith Ahnquist, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Hunter Phelps, and together the tunesmiths’ deliver a take on someone who embraces their Southern roots wholeheartedly to the point of wondering: “I don’t know if Heaven’s got big tall pines/ Or white tail bucks with ten inch tines/ But if I get there, and it looks like home/ Them woods gonna be the first place I go.”
Of the track, HARDY shared, “As a proud Mississippian, I am beyond excited to sing a song that represents this state so well. This is Bottomland.”
“Bottomland” is featured on HARDY’s latest album, COUNTRY! COUNTRY!, which arrived via Big Loud on September 26. The 20-track project includes the nostalgic “Buck On The Wall,” the heartfelt “Girl With A Gun,” chart-climbing country radio single “Favorite Country Song,” the album’s only outside cut “Car That Drove You Away,” and the thankful “Luckiest Man Alive,” which also appeared on his May 2025 release of COUNTRY! EP. COUNTRY! COUNTRY! also features collaborations with ERNEST and Stephen Wilson Jr.
The project finds HARDY returning to his Country roots and is his “love letter to the genre that’s given me everything.”
“I just missed it,” HARDY said of the album, which also follows his COUNTRY! EP. “I missed my community. My peers. Plus, I love country music. I moved to town to write country songs. Going 10 years of writing 100+ songs a year, it was a nice palate cleanser to take a step away from that. Now I’m back. I’m fresh and ready to get right back into it.”
HARDY’s new album, COUNTRY! COUNTRY!, is available now HERE, and everywhere you can buy music.
