Adam told me that Country music was “pretty much all I heard as a kid”. He knows he was taken to see his grandad on stage a number of times but was too young to remember it. Nigel Harding formed Bromford County in the late 1970s when he was 15 and initially played lead guitar while his dad Pete fronted the band. Pete finally bowed out of the Country scene playing his last gig on New Year’s Eve at the Millennium. Having left Bromford County, Nigel joined Roger Humphries and Bite The Bullet c1989.  Roger Humphries and his family relocated from Kent to Derbyshire in 1988 and when he decided to put his band back together with a new lineup he chose from a list of potential band members recommended by a local club promoter.  The band featured Nigel (Snidge) Harding on bass, Micky ‘Sticker’ Evans on drums, a steel guitarist whose name nobody can remember and Roger on lead. Through his career Nigel went on to play bass for Johnny Carter and Hurricane Ridge and then formed the RFD Band with Cliff and Paul Weston. For much of his career, he would dep with other bands as well as working as a drummer with Patrick McGrath. He also formed The Hardings Duo with his dad after Bromford County folded.  Nigel stopped playing c2005 when the family moved to Cornwall for a few years before moving back to Birmingham when Adam was 9. A few years later, Nigel reformed The Hardings Duo but this time with his son Adam. They would rehearse together and take any gigs that came their way but were never busy.  They didn’t push the duo hard and only ever did a few gigs but they enjoyed playing together.
Adam saw his dad playing many times and was only two to three weeks old when he went to his first gig and Nigel later told him that he was something of a ‘nest egg’ as everyone was chucking money at him – it was one of the best paid gigs he has ever done.   Adam started playing bass when he was seven, guitar when he was ten and then piano; all were self taught.  He first went on stage with his father when he was eleven and played bass for him, after that he would often join him on stage.
Even at that age, he knew he wanted to play music as a career but not necessarily Country. At school he was exposed to all different types of music and, like his dad, he particularly liked blues. He also liked alternative rock and could well have gone in that direction. 
Pete Harding took to the stage one final time in November 2010 on his birthday with Nigel on lead guitar, fourteen year old Adam on keys and John Ward on rhythm guitar. This is the only time Adam sang and played with both his dad and grandad.
When he was 21, he began depping as a bass or keyboard player in function bands playing anything from Green Day to Oasis but the opportunity to dep with a Country band never came his way. He soon realised he wanted to go into music a little more seriously but he was still depping with various bands to try and get work and experience. These bands were generally pub bands playing for fun and he wanted more than that, working with a properly committed band.  Country music was still his passion but locally, Country bands were in decline after their heyday in the 1980s and 90s, and those that were still playing had regular musicians and he was never able to get a position which is why he decided to go down the depping route. At least he was playing and gaining experience. He would definitely have joined a Country band if he could have found one.
By 2010 he realised that the only way he would ever perform Country was to go solo. In 2015 he started working as a long distance HGV driver which limited his time for playing in function bands to a couple of gigs a month. His decision to launch a solo career was influenced by his fiancée Lauren who encouraged him to pursue his dream and she has been fully supportive throughout.  Initially, she didn’t like Country music and Adam joked that “she didn’t have much of a choice about it”. When they first got together and Adam told her he liked Country music, she said “I can’t see that I will ever like country music” She has come round and now listens to it by choice.  
Adam’s solo career started by accident. A friend was organising a garden party and asked him if he would provide live entertainment singing Country for which he would be paid.  He had never done any solo work before but was confident that he could do it and gave his friend a quote which may have suggested he had been working solo for years.  Adam considered this gig would be a useful trial to confirm that he was able to do it.  He already had a good selection of Country tracks from when he and Nigel worked as a duo.
After this first solo gig, which was well received, Adam got the bug for it and knew now that he really could do it. He continued depping for a couple of years but started preparing a solo career and getting some sets together while still driving full time.  His first solo gig on the club circuit was at the Triple C WDC at Westbury, Wiltshire in late 2022. Because he was still working full time he wasn’t able to do midweek gigs. It took, a while to establish himself on the circuit but he was very well received wherever he appeared much to his surprise and he joked “the thing I can’t get used to is people wanting pictures with me”. After the first gig in Wiltshire, bookings began coming in at a steady rate. Although Adam doesn’t class himself as a line dance performer his sets go down very well at line dance venues so he is clearly getting the balance right.  Initially he was a little apprehensive about playing line dance clubs but that early apprehension quickly proved unfounded.
He went fully pro in September 2023 partly because he had fallen out of love with driving and partly because he was turning too many gigs down because of the driving. Adam’s dad, Nigel comes to all the gigs and is Adam’s sound engineer. This was Adam’s idea because Nigel knows the club scene well and always gives good advice. Adam feels there’s nothing better than having Nigel with him. “We work as a team” he told me and he feels Nigel adds a lot to the Adam Harding Music brand.  As well as being his best friend Nigel is actually a good sound man. Although initially Adam had to persuade Nigel to join the team he now loves it.
Top of Adam’s list of favourite Country artists is Cody Johnson while his other big inspirations are Toby Keith, Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, Garth Brooks and also artists like The Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd which he considers to be Country Rock. Among his favourite traditional Country singers are artists like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Hank Williams.
Adam formed Adam Harding Music to promote his new career.  He does a lot of weddings where Country music is becoming very popular along with parties, honky tonks, festivals and corporate events but will only do Country music. He has already released his first CD album If You’ve Got A Dream, Chase It which is available at gigs.   About 30 – 40% of his gigs are at CMC’s. Adam is happy to travel anywhere..