Jon Pardi Goes Platinum with “California Sunrise”
Jon Pardi continues to prove that more traditionally-styled country music can be wildly successful in the mainstream when give a chance, and now he’s got more Platinum hardware to prove it. Adding to his 2X Platinum song “Head Over Boots,” his Platinum song “Heartache on the Dance Floor,” and his 2X Platinum “Dirt on My Boots,” Jon Pardi’s album California Sunrise has now been Certified Platinum by the RIAA. It comes as the fifth single from the record, “Night Shift,” cracks the Top 15 at country radio, and could be headed towards being his 3rd #1 and 4th Top 5 from California Sunrise.
Jon Pardi celebrated the achievement recently during his headlining set in front of a crowd of 16,500 at the San Antonio Rodeo February 19th, speaking again to the under-the-radar success the California native continues to achieve. He’s also currently on tour with Dierks Bentley as part of the Burning Man tour, and has five tour dates coming up in Australia to help expand his international footprint.
The promise in Pardi is not that he’ll be the next George Jones, but that he helps bridge the gap between contemporary and traditional by offering the mainstream masses a healthier alternative. Prominent steel guitar and fiddle adorn many of his songs that are built out from working class themes that Pardi can speak directly to from his upbringing in the interior California town of Dixon.
The next question fans of Jon Pardi have is when they may hear new music from him. It’s been nearly three years since California Sunrise was released, and Pardi has been playing some new songs in concert recently. Once “Night Shift” crests in the charts in the coming weeks, expect to hear something about new music shortly thereafter.

February 28, 2019 @ 10:48 am
Wow! That’s incredible news. I remember buying this CD back in the summer of 2016. Its still in rotation in the CD player of my truckasaurus! Can’t wait for some new music from Pardi.
February 28, 2019 @ 11:06 am
The best single (“She Ain’t In It”) was a not-so-big hit (#21 – Billboard Airplay). Too country…
The name of the next single will be “Boots Over Boots” & the album will be called Boots, Boots, Boots.
February 28, 2019 @ 12:28 pm
The new album might be called “Heartache Medication”, according to Pardi in a recent interview.
February 28, 2019 @ 12:40 pm
I went to a Songwriter’s Round last Friday featuring Erin Enderlin (the primary artist I went to see), Heidi Newfield, and Wynn Varble (who wrote “She Ain’t In It”). He performed the song at the show and while I love Pardi’s album and his version of the song, I’ve always enjoyed hearing original songwriter’s versions.
February 28, 2019 @ 11:35 am
There’s nothing to celebrate here. The only real C(c)ountry song on the album, “She Ain’t In It”, failed.
The success of this album is due to all the pop that’s on it.
February 28, 2019 @ 12:02 pm
It failed at radio but are we really surprised by that?
The official video on YouTube has over 16 million views. but then I compared to Dirt on My Boots which has over 72 million views. damn
Is there a way to see how units or whatever it’s called sold or how well the single did on streaming services? I would think that would be a better measure of how people responded to the song than how it did on radio
February 28, 2019 @ 7:47 pm
its hard to believe a song/video can get 72 million views ( and many have millions more ) and the artists are nowhere near household names . in fact many are virtually unheard of . what does THAT say about the importance of these views and plays in these times …..unless everyone involved in the creative end is making an absolute king’s ransom , which we know they are not , and everyone who saw the video bought product. i suppose it might mean more people at the shows ….but not 72 million .
February 28, 2019 @ 12:35 pm
The album is constantly in the Top 15 country albums sales on Billboard each week, competing with new releases… and this album is pushing 3 years. An incredible accomplishment. But I feel like the media seems to gush over Stapleton and Luke Combs more so than Pardi… but it’s not a race, more a marathon. And Jon has been paying his dues quite modestly.
Dirt on my boots & Heartache are the only country pop outliers, but even those songs have plenty of steel, fiddle. It sounds good and the blend works well. Plus Pardi’s voice is always country sounding. His next album might be even more traditional than ever before
February 28, 2019 @ 3:24 pm
God, shut the fuck up sometimes.
February 28, 2019 @ 4:03 pm
If you cry it out you’ll feel better. Get you a box of Kleenex and let it flow.
February 28, 2019 @ 5:04 pm
You conveniently left out that head over boots is 100% a country song. Maybe not the best song ever, but country. It was the lead single and sold just as well as all his other singles so people liked it.
February 28, 2019 @ 11:45 am
I really like Pardi. Reminds me of 90s George Strait country. His CA Sunrise is a great record. I listen to it on a weekly basis. I saw him back in Feb 2018 opening for Miranda Lambert in Sacramento CA (prob only about 25 miles from Dixon). He was great, home crowd was showing him a lot of love! The crowd was probably at 80% capacity when he was performing. I have never seen an opening act pull in so many fans before the main artist.
I don’t understand how he is still opening to the likes of Luke Bryan and Dierks Bentley. I feel like he should be able to tour on his own merit. I am very much looking forward to new music from him hopefully then he’ll get his own tour.
She Ain’t In It is definitely the best song on the record. Personal bias he should’ve released CA Sunrise as the last single instead of Night Shift!
February 28, 2019 @ 2:29 pm
Pardi has done his own headlining tours. I saw him in October 2017. Runaway June and Midland opened. The venue holds 3,200 or something like that. It was sold-out. That’s a large venue by comparison to most indoor, non-arena venues. Pardi is not at the level of being able to do an outdoor amphitheater concert tour. But it’s good for him to open on such tours. When he opens for Dierks, he is reaching a massive audience — an audience that will then be more likely to stream/purchase his music and see him in concert on his own tour.
February 28, 2019 @ 9:34 pm
Can I just ask how were Midland and Runaway June live? I’ve heard great things about the latter.
February 28, 2019 @ 10:51 pm
@ Raymond, I saw them too on Pardi’s tour. They were both great opening acts. Midland was brand new back then. An excellent lineup. It was the Lucky Tonight tour sponsored by CMT.
March 1, 2019 @ 7:49 am
I was impressed by both Runaway June (who I’ve now seen twice, when they did a benefit concert with David Lee Murphy recently) and Midland. I was especially curious to see if Midland could pull-off those lush vocal harmonies on the album, and I think they did. They weren’t the tightest band I’ve seen — that would probably be Whitey Morgan and the 78’s — but they were impressive.
February 28, 2019 @ 12:05 pm
The new songs that I’ve heard him perform live are really good, especially one called “Ain’t Always a Cowboy.”
Saw him open for Dierks at Bridgestone in Nashville last week. He performed at 14-song set…the majority of the crowd didn’t stand up until he was on his 12th song, “Heartache on the Dance Floor.”
Great set though.
February 28, 2019 @ 12:27 pm
One of the best mainstream country albums of the last 5 years for sure. Every song could have been a single!!! Loved Lucky Tonight and Cowboy Hat too. Ready for the new music!!!!
February 28, 2019 @ 1:02 pm
“offering the mainstream masses a healthier alternative”…….Great way of putting it Trig I’d say the same for Luke Combs.
Jon Pardi is the “goods”. Fun Country pop songs with a good hook and sing along chorus combo that’s hard to not love. Is he Tyler Childers, Whitey Morgan, Simpson/Stapleton or trying to be? Nope, and I’m fine with that. Just be the best Jon Pardi you can be. If it works don’t fix it!!
Can’t wait for the new album!
February 28, 2019 @ 3:41 pm
This is a deserving record to have this distinction. I think Pardis music is a great example of what modernised country should sound like. It is just a fun listen the whole way through, new one should be good!
February 28, 2019 @ 7:00 pm
Nice accomplishment, always good to see a newer not-so-bad talent bringing home the hardware. But the next move is clear; he needs to push the envelope with his next album. Make it balls-to-the-wall trad country. No more playing both sides of the fence. My main fear, as others have pointed out, is that the most “country” song on this album only just missed the top 20, whereas the other “pop” singles did far better, which means he might not be as inclined to test those waters again. Of course, “She Ain’t in It” wouldn’t have come close to the top 20 if this was 2013/2014, so I guess we just have to take the steps where we can.
February 28, 2019 @ 10:57 pm
I’m no insider, but I assume his next single will be “Tequila Little Time” . He sang it recently at a Capitol Records event. Apparently, most artists sing their upcoming radio single at these events, but not always… We’ll see. But here is a youtube link to the song. It starts a 1:45 ish. For his fans.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=beZvaBtT7SA
March 1, 2019 @ 6:13 am
I want to like him more than I do, but I just can’t get past the “radio” songs; they kill it for me.
March 1, 2019 @ 7:59 am
Not a fan. The vocal processing grates on my nerves worse than the sound of Jennifer Nettles voice. When I hear somebody say something like, “he helps bridge the gap between contemporary and traditional by offering the mainstream masses a healthier alternative” I’m sure my face looks like one of those ‘Say What????’ memes.
But I guess he does it for some people?
March 1, 2019 @ 1:19 pm
Pardi’s OK, not really my cup of tea, but recognizably country at least. Ideally he’d be about as pop as country gets.
March 2, 2019 @ 5:21 pm
She ain’t in it made my best of last year. I don’t care if it wasn’t a hit the fact the people are likely to hear when they just press play and let the music run in the background is a starting point.
meanwhile Lindi Ortega is playing near me as an opening act is there ANYWAY we can get this lady onto goddamn radio? I’m thinking she may need to sell herself to indie or rock radio at this point.