Ernest Surprises Nashville Crowd With Keith Urban, Hardy

It was a special night in Music City for the "Nashville kid" himself, Ernest. The country singer and prestigious songwriter hit the stage at the Ryman Auditorium Tuesday night (11/28) for his first of two sold out nights there and surprised the crowd with two very special guests.

I will say that he definitely made his fans proud while performing top hits such as "Kiss of Death," "Flower Shops," "Miss That Girl," "Tennessee Queen," "Feet Wanna Run," and more.

Ernest took on a cover of John Mayer's 2006 track, "Slow Dancing In A Burning Room," with a surprise guest on guitar, the one and only Keith Urban. The 31-year-old had previously released a live studio cover last month as well as a live performance video as part of his "Circle Sessions" earlier this year.

Ernest tried not to get emotional on stage for the sold-out crowd, but who could have blamed him if he did? The Ryman is a place that he holds near and dear to his heart for many reasons, as do most country artists.

"I mean, damn, I named my son after this place. It means the world to me. Writing songs was something I was doing before I knew I was writing songs. I was just wasting time in class, scribbling in notepads. I probably got some teachers here tonight that can attest to that." Ernest told the crowd.

While he wasn't in attendance, Ernest did perform a song he had written for a fellow Nashvillian and CMA Awards winner for New Artist of the Year, Jelly Roll. The singer-songwriter took a few minutes to tell the backstory of "Son Of A Sinner" and his friendship with the superstar.

"A song I wrote with a good friend of mine, a fellow Nashville native by the name of Jason Bradley DeFord. Who is professionally known by Jelly Roll. I've known him for a few years and then I went to college and he went to jail. And we got out of our situations. And he called me one day to the golf course and he was like, I want to write a country album. I want to make country music. And we ended up writing his song one day," Ernest exclaimed.

As Ernest mentioned in the Facebook post below, there was honestly "so much love in the room last night." With that, came his second surprise guest of the evening, his good friend and labelmate, Hardy.

Ernest and Hardy performed "More Than My Hometown," the lead single from Morgan Wallen's sophomore album, Dangerous: The Double Album. Produced by Joey Moi, the fan-favorite track was co-written by Ernest, Hardy, Wallen, and Ryan Vojtesak.

Ernest will perform again tonight for night two at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. He will join Wallen out on the road for his 2024 Morgan Wallen: One Night At A Time World Tour in May.

Michael Wilson Hardy is a songwriter in high demand. And rightly so. He started out 2022 by winning the 2022 ACM Songwriter of the Year. He followed up that honor with the 2022 AIMP Songwriter of the Year Award. Last month, the artist better known as just "Hardy" won the BMI Songwriter of the Year Award.

Music Row said Hardy has earned a reputation as “one of Nashville’s most trusted songwriters.” Sure, he has scored a few hits on his own, from his debut single, "Rednecker,"  to his recent smash with Lainey Wilson, "Wait In The Truck." But Hardy has long been the go-to hit songwriter for many artists, especially his good friend and frequent tourmate, Morgan Wallen.

Let's take a look at some of the biggest hits he has written for other artists.  Did you know Hardy wrote these 19 hit songs?

Hardy co-wrote this Dierks Bentley #1 hit with a lot of help. Ashley Gorley, Luke Dick, Ross Copperman, Breland, and Dierks all had a hand in making this a smash last Spring. Hardy and Breland are also featured on the track. This song marked the 18th #1 career hit for Bentley, and Hardy's 2nd, as well as Breland/s first.

This song went top 12 early in 2022 for Blake Shelton. Hardy co-wrote "Come Back as a Country Boy" with  Jordan Schmidt and Josh Thompson. 

Hardy gave us this original in 2021, from his album The Rock. He co-wrote "Give Heaven Some Hell" with Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson and Hunter Phelps. Hardy scored a top 11 hit with the song he called a "stirring" tribute to anyone who has lost a loved one. He also said it was one of his favorite songs he'd ever written.

Written with  Devin Dawson, and Jordan Schmidt, Hardy helped Blake Shelton score one of the biggest hits of his career. "God's Country" was a commercial and critical success. And presented Blake with a different sound. It was named single of the year at both the ACM and CMA Awards, and earned Blake a couple of Grammy nominations. According to Devin Dawson, they wrote the song on a Thursday, "Blake heard it and  by Monday he had recorded it."

Another hit for Blake, thanks in part to Hardy. This time Hardy enlisted the talents of  writers David Garcia and Brett Tyler.  "Hell Right" is song is about taking things to the limit. "You can raise hell or raise hell right." It's peaked at #18 in 2019.

Another collaboration with the usual suspects for Hardy. He, along with Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson and Hunter Phelps first pitched "Holy Water" to Blake Shelton before Michael Ray ended up with it.

For this triple platinum selling 2018 Chris Lane smash hit, Hardy worked with Hunter Phelps and Jameson Rodgers. It's a guy walks into a bar and sees "the girl" story. And it took Chris Lane to the top of the charts for a couple of weeks.

And yet another Morgan Wallen/Hardy team effort, that also included the assistance wrote of singer/songwriter Ernest and Ryan Vojtesak. "More Than My Hometown" became Morgan's 4th consecutive #1 hit. The song was released in May of 2020, and seemed to resonate with so many people, at a very difficult time in the world.

"New Truck?"  Who knew? Most of us knew about the hits Hardy helped write for Blake Shelton and Morgan Wallen, even Cole Swindell. But this one might have surprised you.  Dylan Scott co-wrote "New Truck" with Hardy, Hunter Phelps, Ashley Gorley and Ben Johnson. It was based on Scott's real life; a time when he broke up for several months with the woman who would become his wife, Blair. Dylan scored his 2nd #1 hit with the song this past August.

Written by Hardy, along with Hillary Lindsey and Jake Mitchell, "One Beer" is a story song about how one night, and one beer changed 2 peoples lives forever. The happy ending to this story, the twist of fate may have taken their plans off the table, but ultimately led to a happy family of three. "One Beer" is Hardy's first and only #1 hit as the lead artist, so far...

"One Big Country Song" became one big hit for the duo LoCash in 2019. Hardy worked with Ashley Gorley and Jesse Frasure to write this one, and Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard produced it.

Rising star Breland took us to church at the 2022 ACM Awards,performing this live, and brought Thomas Rhett along for the ride. Hardy had a hand in writing this spiritual piece of art. He had a lot of help writing this, enlisting the talents of Breland, Julian Bunetta, David Garcia, Jacob Durrett, Jessie Jo Dillon, Kyle Fishman, and Thomas Rhett. In fact Rhett had made it known that the first time he heard this song, he danced and threw his hands in the air. He was grateful Breland allowed him to write a verse in the song. 

One of Hardy's best here, he co-wrote this gem with his frequent collaboraters Ashley Gorley and Josh Osborne. Apparently Luke Bryan had a great interest in this song, but Morgan snatched it up and took it to #1 early in 2022.

This Hardy, Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley writing collab resulted in a 2018 #1 hit for Florida Georgia Line. Tyler Hubbard told Nash Country Daily that the song served as "Just a little reminder to simplify things every now and then and have a good time while you do it."

There was a lot of writing going on during the pandemic. Hardy and Cole Swindell worked with Mark Holman and Ashley Gorley to come up with "Single Saturday."  Cole released it as the leadoff single for his album Sterotype in May of 2020. It went on to become one of his biggest hits to date. 

For this 2020 #1 hit, Hardy collaborated with CJ Solar and Jake Mitchell. It served at Jameson's debut single, from his debut studio album Bet You're from a Small Town (2021)

Hardy teamed up with Hunter Phelps, Jameson Rodgers and Alysa Vanderheym to write this one for Florida Georgia Line. "Talk You Out Of It" entered the top 11 in 2018.

Hardy enlisted the help of  Brad Clawson, and CJ Solar for this Morgan Wallen hit. In 2018 it became Morgan's first #1 hit. Hardy even appears in the video. 

Hardy debuted "Wait in the Truck" at the CMA Awards last month, and it blew everyone away. This song is the leadoff single for Hardy's upcoming second studio album The Mockingbird & the Crow. 

According to Songfacts, "Hardy wrote 'Wait In The Truck' with Hunter Phelps and Jordan Schmidt on March 18, 2021 at Schmidt's home studio. "Something very spiritual happened the day that we wrote that song," he told The Tennessean. "We just kind of looked down at our pen and paper and we looked up and the song was written, it was amazing to be a part of it. It speaks on something very important, domestic violence. At the end of the day I just really hope that this gives somebody a platform to speak out."