California Sunrise

Rowdy, throwback country tunes with a little edge and a lot of fiddle, Jon Pardi’s sophomore album is a bid to bring the genre back to its tough and twangy roots. After hitting a string of wild Texas dance halls, the California native was determined to capture the boisterous energy of a live show without resigning to EDM trends. So he recorded with a seven-piece band that included a fiddle, hand claps, a tambourine, and a steel guitar to give each song extra punch. “Dirt on My Boots,” a howling ode to letting loose, was designed to lure listeners off their stools and onto the floor. “Might have a little dirt on my boots,\" he sings, \"but we’re gonna dance the dust right off them tonight.”

On the cover of his 2014 debut, Write You a Song, Jon Pardi seemed a bit like a metrosexual country boy but on California Sunrise, its 2016 sequel, he's decked out like an old-school cowboy, complete with a big hat and blue jeans.