With Head Over Boots, Jon Pardi puts his best foot forward
In today’s country music, the pace of regime change feels slower than glacial — something that should alarm all of God’s creatures, but especially Chris Stapleton fans. After Stapleton cleaned house at last year’s Country Music Association Awards with his dignified brand of neo-traditionalism, a shift appeared to be on the horizon. Plenty of country listeners flipped their radios on the next morning, waiting for a new wave of old-schoolers to take over the playlists. For the most part, they’re still waiting.
One exception: Jon Pardi's "Head Over Boots," a sweet, smart shuffle that hit No. 1 on Billboard's Country Airplay charts in August. It stands as the most charming country hit on the radio waves this year, but Pardi isn't some post-Stapleton industry creation being rushed to market. His terrific new album, "California Sunrise," is his second, and its success is a reminder that there all kinds of voices waiting to croon into the national megaphone that is country radio. After Stapleton, guys like Pardi are being allowed to cut to the front of the line.
That hasn’t made him a headliner just yet. On Friday at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Pardi opened for the duller, starrier Kip Moore, but the 31-year-old Pardi sang with the workmanlike poise of a veteran at the top of his game. And who knows where this native Californian got that twang of his? When it sounds this right, who cares? Across 11 high-spirited songs, Pardi’s lungs and sinuses were working in perfect tandem.
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As for all of the guitars hanging on his shoulders, they weren’t stage props. All of his band’s activity seemed to radiate outward from the moments when Pardi’s right hand struck the strings. And the band was sharp, too. His muscle-minded rhythm section punched low in the gut, while his utility players filled the high spaces with sawing fiddles and whistling steel guitars. Everyone was hitting hard while making space, leaving plenty of room in the middle for Pardi to strum and sing about true love, hard work — and the hard work that goes into true love.
During his latest single, “Dirt on My Boots,” a day of field labor pays for a night on an uptown dance floor. “Just two more rows, then I’m good to go. Yeah, I’m shutting this tractor down,” Pardi sang Friday, his band making the song sound satisfyingly more robust. “Gimme a half an hour for a shave and a shower, and I’ll be outside your house.” That’s about as conventional as a 21st-century country lyric gets, but curiously, the melody sure sounded a lot like Sean Paul’s 2002 dance-hall reggae anthem “Get Busy.” Today’s traditionalists seem to have surprisingly open ears.
To no surprise, Pardi finished his set with “Head Over Boots,” an aptly midtempo tune about a romance that’s become calm and comfortable. Here’s how comfortable: When Pardi asks for a kiss in the second verse, he instructs his beloved to “bring it on in.” Don’t try that line at the end of a first date, kids. But in a world supersaturated with crazy-in-love songs, this was a staying-in-love song for the books, and Pardi delivered it with a cool that sounded just about immaculate.
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