Forever Country Cover Series: Jon Pardi Covers ‘Forever and Ever, Amen’

In honor of the 50^th anniversary of the CMA Awards this year, various artists in country music have taken the time out to cover some of the biggest songs in the genre ever recorded and performed.

Taking on these celebrated hits for the “Forever Country Cover” series, artists both from current and past generations have added their own spin to the beloved classics from the last five decades. Jon Pardi brought his acoustic guitar and side band to perform a song that not only is special to many fans, but also to the country singer himself as he grew up listening to the track of his choice, Randy Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen.”

“I chose to cover Randy Travis’ ‘Forever and Ever, Amen’ ’cause it’s one of my favorite songs and it’s an iconic country song and it reminds me of back in the day when I was singing with my grandma about that in the late 80s. It was just kinda dominating the radio and it was just something I always remembered. I love that song and I’ve played it a bunch of times and it really put traditional country on another level too,” he explained exclusively to Sounds Like Nashville.

Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen” was the winner of Single of the Year and Song of the Year at the CMA Awards back in 1987. Known as one of Travis’ biggest hits of his career, the song definitely made a mark on country music with its unique blending of traditional sounds with a modern melody.

Fans interested in seeing more “Forever Country” content can head to the website leading up to the 50^th anniversary of the iconic country music awards show. The site has loads of features including music, a sweepstakes and the collaborative video for “Forever Country,” a medley song that hosts 30 artists in country music in one major project.

The 50^th Annual CMA Awards will air live on Wednesday, November 2 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.