Write You A Song

On his debut album, Jon Pardi celebrates hard times and good times alike with an upbeat attitude that can’t help but induce a smile. *Write You a Song* is rooted in the Northern California–born singer/songwriter’s love for honky tonk-style country while avoiding the morose balladry associated with the genre. Pardi and coproducer Bart Butler brighten things up with crunchy rock guitars and slamming drum work, seasoned with enough fiddle and pedal steel to keep the feel down-home. Pardi’s vocal style is exuberant, even brash, which fits his big-hearted and slightly reckless persona. Tracks like the touring musician’s lament “Missin’ You Crazy” (the singer’s first Top 30 single) and the starry-eyed “Chasin’ Them Better Days” have the authentic ring of experience. Whether he’s making a play for new romance (the title tune), confessing his fumbled love life (“Empty Beer Cans”), or drunk-calling his ex (“When I’ve Been Drinkin’”), Pardi balances his wild edge with a natural Guy Next Door charm. “Trash a Hotel Room” adds a dash of bad-boy craziness just when it’s needed.

A country traditionalist at heart, Jon Pardi is also fully aware that country, like most musical genres, is evolving, shifting and changing as the 21st century advances, taking on rock and pop traits like big drums and gritty electric guitars, while trading on a kind of nostalgia for an endless summer of breaking hearts and drinking beer on back-country dirt roads, the kinds of themes honky tonk, outlaw, and traditional country have always hung their hats on, really.