Megan Moroney Sings a Message About Messy 20-Something Life: It’s OK.

“It’s like I’m 26, dating people, and you’re going to be wrong,” she said. “OK, fine. That’s the point: It happened, and I’m OK. It’s happening to someone right now, thinking this is the one. They’re not, and it’s going to be OK.”

Kristian Bush, Moroney’s producer (and half of the Grammy-winning country act Sugarland), joined her in New York for the event. Moroney, who had been a publishing intern at his publishing company in Marietta, Ga., called Bush shortly after she moved to Nashville, and he swung into action. “When Megan told me what she was doing, I got very protective and called Juli, my longtime publisher,” he said. “Meg was a pretty girl, and I know how those rooms can be; Juli was the only one I trusted.”

Once convinced of Moroney’s work ethic, Griffith signed on as her manager and set up recording sessions with people who “would let Meg lead,” which included Jessi Alexander, Luke Laird and Jessie Jo Dillon, the daughter of the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Dean Dillon, who all have multiple writing credits on “Okay?” In the recording studio, Moroney prefers older-school processes to assemble a sound she calls “a vintage car that flies”: actual musicians playing together instead of relying on drum machines, computer tracks and overdubbed instruments. (She has branded her sound “emo cowgirl country.”)

“I know in my songs there’s a lot of I’m bringing men down,” Moroney said, adding that she’d only been in love three times. “But I always make jokes to the audience, ‘Clearly, I love men, because I keep coming back and I keep trying. It just keeps not working out.’”

Her honesty and wit have turned even casual listeners into loyal fans. At the Hard Rock, around 40 arrived from as far away as Arizona, California, Florida and even Canada. Some wore T-shirts with Moroney’s picture and the words “Feminine Rage.” After gathering in a room filled with cobalt and silver heart-shaped balloons, Moroney played all 14 songs and offered (at times laughing) commentary. The already released singles had everyone singing along with gusto, and “Heaven by Noon,” a ballad inspired by an uneventful last call between her aunt and uncle on Sept. 11, hours before his death in the attack on the World Trade Center, brought even the men in the room to tears. (They cried at some of the relationship songs, too.)