Jon Pardi (2021)

One Liner: Obviously the opener for George Strait, but thoroughly generic country

Wikipedia Genre: Country, neotraditional country
Home: Nashville (but originally CA)

Poster Position: 4
Both Weekends.

Friday at 7pm on T-Mobile Stage.

Thoughts:  This guy came to ACL back in 2014, and I did not much care for his Nashville-issued perfection.  Here were my thoughts back then:

I have to think that he made that name up to sound like "Party."  His top single (a little over 4 million listens on Spotify) is fully formed Nashville country rockin' about partyin' all night long.  It is called "Up All Night."

Pearl snap shirt, check. Well-creased cowboy hat, check. Steel guitar, check. Pictures of a barn and moving some hay, check. Friendly yellow dog, check. Topless bronco and big red truck, check. Taking a dirt road, check. Blanket by the creek, check. Is there a Don King for young country music artists who helps them fill out this checklist of what is required to be in the lyrics of every song? Blerg.

Second most listened to song is "Missin' You Crazy," which is another hootenanny masterstroke about haulin' ass home to kiss you goodnight, 'cause woah woah woah woah 'cause here I come baby!  Whowee!  Gotta get gone!

That video shows two things.  There are fans who know his music and who appear to really like beer.  And when he's not wearing his Nashville-agent-issued cowboy hat, he prefers skater-ish trucker caps with his sweet locks flowing out from underneath.  Tune is pretty toe-tappin' but I am going to let this guy do his thing without me in October.

BUT, I'm willing to give him a try now and see if he's changed things up in the last 7 years!

First off, it would appear that Pardi is really his last name.  Second off, he's scored three number one songs on the Country charts since I last listened in on the guy.

His most streamed stuff is from 2016's California Sunrise, with generically country anthems like "Head Over Boots" and "Dirt on My Boots" and "Boots Boots Boots So Many Boots!" and "Heartache on the Dance Floor" all scoring near or above 200 million streams.  (maybe one of those was fake)  Which is pretty big!  We'll check out that top one, "Head Over Boots," with 227.9 million streams.

These tracks are heavy on that same style - a big sing-along chorus comes along in there, and a bunch of treacly lyrics about terrible shit like "bring it on in for that angel kiss" or "you're the rock to my roll" or whatever else generic stuff some guy in a cubicle in Nashville came up for this pretty face to warble.  I kind of hate to be a dick about this music, because obviously a lot of people want something brainless and cute like this that they can just enjoy.  I get it.  For someone this is probably their wedding song or something.  But personally, I'd be better off without knowing it existed.  

Lotta drinkin' in these songs.  "Buy That Man a Beer," or "Tequila Little Time," or "When I've Been Drinkin'," etc.  Lotta ladies who surely know how much he loves them.  The most recent album is 2019's Heartache Medication (I'll give you ONE GUESS about what this guy uses for heartache medication!), with the title song winning the streaming wars for now at 80.1 million Spotify listens.

Shockingly, that heartache medication is booze.  I know you are surprised.  Although, I'll say that Michters he has at the third or fourth bar is pretty yummy brown water.  But when that young lady takes the man's hat off of his head?  Doesn't that break some deep seated cowboy rule?  Or maybe the rule was that if a dude touched your hat you needed to fight him, but if a lady did then it meant you were definitely getting married down a dirt road in an old hay barn with Jack Daniels as your best man?  I can never remember.

I had never heard the term neotraditional country, so I looked that up as well.  Guess who Wikipedia has as the little photo for the article about the style?  King George himself.  Neotraditional apparently rose up after the "urban cowboy" movement had turned country music into something closer to pop, and took it back towards traditional country music that looked to Hank Williams and George Jones for inspiration.  The Wikipedia article cites Randy Travis and Alan Jackson as those who stayed true to the neotraditional sound, despite people like Garth Brooks moving it away into arena-sized rock country next.  Interesting.

And I won't try to act like I haven't enjoyed some generic country before.  But that being said, 

I'm good without seeing this.  I don't figure I need to get real close to see George Strait anyway, I can enjoy his stuff from a comfortable spot instead of trying to get in the thick of it.