Pardi announces fatherhood is at hand

Mr. Saturday Night

Jon Pardi's "Mr. Saturday Night" sounds as though most of its stories take place on the weekend at an idealized country honky tonk. Many of these drinking holes also feature swinging doors and jukeboxes. They don't seem like citified bars, but they perfectly fit Pardi's enjoyable neo-traditional song cycle. Although the drums pound much harder on the single "Last Night Lonely" than they do on truly traditional country music, Pardi incorporates far more fiddle ...

Heartache Medication

Jon Pardi may sing about heartache medication with this collection of songs, but his focus on arrangements filled with traditional musical elements (fiddle, steel guitar and twangy electric guitar) is joyfully medicinal for anyone sickened by so much mainstream country music that lacks many (if not all) of these essential country instruments. These songs read as well as they sound, though. For example, the drinking song "Me and Jack" begins with a thumping, Johnny Cash-inspired country groove. ...

California Sunrise

Jon Pardi apparently isn't worried about chasing something new. He makes that clear on the opening "Out of Style" where he sings "The common way we work and play/Are still alive and well today/Don't' need to find a new way to say/We don't get out of style." He may not have penned the song, but Pardi continues mining a more traditional sound on his recordings (his live shows tend to rock far too much as if he's trying to figure just who he is musically). ...