Pardi sticks to his boots

Merry Christmas from Jon Pardi

You know from the first notes of Jon Pardi's "All I Want For Christmas" that this is going to be good album as it starts off with a steel guitar intro. Later, there is also a twin fiddle solo. These elements reveal how this track is a true country version. It's also executed well, which makes this old holiday warhorse of a song somehow sound fresh and new. It's one of 12 winners and proves once again what a gift Pardi is to us all. The content is consistently secular, ...

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. ...