Jon Pardi released his debut album, Write You a Song, 10 years ago this week (January 14th, 2014). The California native grew up listening and singing songs by his heroes — George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson — with his grandmother, has since exploded on the country charts with six No. 1 songs.
Write You A Song contains both of Pardi’s breakthrough hits—“Missin’ You Crazy” and “Up All Night”–as well as tracks that veer from pure honky-tonk and party songs to tales of love and romance. The bottom line, though, is pure, stage-worthy high energy.
“All I ever wanted to do coming to Nashville,” says Jon, “was to write rowdy, in-your-face, straight country music, and that’s what this album is.”
The album’s title track packs the kind of punch that marks Pardi as heir to a honky-tonk line that runs through Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam, and its spare instrumentation brings a purist’s grit to heartfelt tales of road life. “What I Can’t Put Down” is an ode to the addictive nature of cigarettes, alcohol, love and, above all, music. “Trash A Hotel Room” is not, as might be expected, a tale of road excess, but rather a tale of two lovers getting back to basics, and “Happens All The Time” makes a terrific song out of a pick-up line. If there is a bit of autobiographical philosophy here, it’s in the fan-favorite “Chasin’ Them Better Days,” an infectious look at hope and dreams in the worlds of music and love.
Jon is currently making his way up the country charts with “Cowboys And Plowboys” with Luke Bryan.
Audio / JON PARDI TALKS ABOUT THE TITLE TRACK OF HIS DEBUT ALBUM, WRITE YOU A SONG.
DownloadJon Pardi (Write You a Song) OC: …a Song. :51 NOTE: Audio isn’t the best quality.
“Well, ‘Write You a Song’ was the second song I’d ever co-written in Nashville, and it was like 2010, maybe in 2009, and it just stuck for so long. That’s a long time to just stick around, but once you hear it, it’s just so in your face and it’s fun. It’s talking about this guy that tours around the country in a van, and he’d always meet girls at shows, and he’s just having fun and they’re having fun. It doesn’t sound like me at all, you know, it doesn’t sound like me at all. But, this song has brought that guy to life, who’s not me, I’m just saying. It’s about writing chicks songs, and as I listen to the 11 songs, ‘Write You a Song,’ sticks out, and that’s why it’s the title track. It’s like you want to have a title for your essay you turned in in high school, or you have a title for your track list. Boom – ‘Write You a Song.’”
