Watch Megan Moroney Debut Unreleased Song for Ed Sheeran at Bluebird Cafe

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Country star wrote "Beautiful Things" with Jessie Jo Dillon, Jessi Alexander, and Connie Harrington and previewed it at the Nashville listening room

For her Future of Music cover story last week, Megan Moroney welcomed Rolling Stone into a writer’s retreat where she played six songs she had written for her third album. On Sunday, the country star debuted one of them, “Beautiful Things,” during a writers’ round hosted by Ed Sheeran at the Bluebird Cafe.

In videos shared to Instagram, Moroney could be seen strumming her guitar to the song as Sheeran nods along. “‘Cause fires burn up canyons, a hurricane can wreck a beach/Words can make a mockingbird forget they’re born to sing/Lies can break a fragile heart, and doubt can crush your dreams,” she sings. “But honey, just take it from me/The world is hard on beautiful things.”

Moroney joined the round with Hodges, Amy Allen, and Sheeran himself. Allen performed a cover of “Espresso,” which she co-wrote for Sabrina Carpenter, while Sheeran played “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber. “My first time playing the Bluebird Cafe,” Moroney wrote on

Instagram about the moment. “Thanks for inviting me, [Ed Sheeran].”

Moroney wrote “Beautiful Things” with Connie Harrington, Jessie Alexander, and Jessie Jo Dillon, the songwriting crew that Rolling Stone‘s cover story dubbed the “Buc-ee’s Avengers.” During the writing retreat, Harrington wiped away tears after hearing Moroney play the song: “A lot of girls suffer in silence. And you suffer publicly,” she told Moroney during the playback.

“We always say that our song is probably not as good as it should be if Connie doesn’t cry,” Moroney said. “We wrote the crap out of these songs. We exerted all of our options on every verse, every word.”