Jon Pardi
Write You a Song
A surprisingly entertaining debut effort, Jon Pardi’s relentless enthusiasm infuses even mediocre material with enough energy to make it listenable. Of course, that’s the advantage of a debut album. Even if the material isn’t fresh, the artist is.
So the real promise for Pardi’s future is his ability to write and record songs that are a cut above the average radio fare of the day. He does this on the best tracks of Write You a Song, most significantly on the title track, where a traveling musician leaves behind a one night stand in every town, but basically says, “Hey! When you hear that song of mine on the radio, I wrote it about you!”
It’s funny, it’s clever, and it’s got more truth to it than an hour of those radio ditties about girls with their pretty bare feet up on the dashboard. He does vulnerable well, too, and while he may be partying like those other guys, it’s often because he’s nursing a broken heart. When he pairs that spirit with enough twang to make Old Crow Medicine Show blush, like he does on “Love You From Here”, the result is magical.
Pardi’s still a kid and the general lack of maturity isn’t working against him yet. But if he can keep telling his story as vividly and creatively as he does on the best of Write You a Song, he’s a talent worth watching.
Recommended Tracks: “Write You a Song”, “Love You From Here”, “When I’ve Been Drinkin'”