Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes is the seventh and latest studio album by American punk rock band Social Distortion, released on January 18, 2011. It is the band's first album recorded with bassist Brent Harding, their first album of new material since 2004's Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll, and their first release on Epitaph Records. Work on the album began in 2006 and it was originally forecast for a 2007 release, but was pushed back several times while the band continued touring and writing new material. After four years of writing, Social Distortion recorded the album from February to July 2010 at Ocean Studios in Burbank, California. Drummer Atom Willard left the group during the recording sessions in favor of his other band, Angels & Airwaves. He was temporarily replaced by Scott Reeder before David Hidalgo, Jr. joined as the band's new permanent drummer. Despite being listed as a band member on the album, Hidalgo did not actually play on it; instead, the band hired session musician Josh Freese to record the drum tracks.
History
In August 2005, sources reported that Social Distortion was going to begin work on a seventh studio album to be released in 2006. However, frontman Mike Ness told Crush Music Magazine that a new Social Distortion album would "probably" not come out in 2006 or anytime soon. He explained, "I feel like we've got a great start on a new album, we'd like to do a new album soon but I doubt it will be that soon. I figure I will use my time off next year to do the writing and maybe start it toward the end of 2006 recording. It'll be soon but I don't know if it'll be quite that soon." Also in that interview, Ness promised the album not to take another eight years; it instead was released within seven years of their previous album.
In May 2006, it was reported that Social Distortion had started writing and rehearsing new material, with an intended release date of late 2006/early 2007. In July, Ness told The Desert Sun that the band would like to be in the studio in 2007 putting out their seventh album and revealed that "Bakersfield" was one of the new songs they were working on. Asked in that interview what things Ness was writing about, he replied, "the last record had a lot of songs about love and loss, maybe this record I want to be different... but I don't want to give it away... Every record you want better than the last one and a little different. I'm not sure of the direction yet honestly." After embarking on a series of tours in the summer and autumn of 2006, Social Distortion returned to the studio in December to continue working on new material.
Asked in April 2007 about Social Distortion's plans for the coming months, Ness replied, "I had a song that was pretty much the template for the new album, and we went in and recorded it. We're gonna release it sooner. We're gonna put it on the greatest-hits album. So if people want to get a taste of what the new album will sound like, they can hear it on that song. A song called 'Far Behind.' It's a song I wrote in the last year, and we went and recorded it and it came out awesome. We figure it's a great song for the greatest hits because it starts at the beginning of our career and ends right now." In July 2007, Ness told Billboard.com that Social Distortion had "a lot of songs" that never appeared on Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll, and was revisiting demos that he had recorded in 1994. Asked in December what the current status of the album was, Ness told The Denver Post that the band was still writing new material and doing a new song in a setlist but would have to stop performing live before recording could take place.