Jon Pardi Drops Surprise Live Album, ‘Rancho Fiesta Sessions’
Check out some honky tonk covers of George Strait, Tom Petty and more.
Honky tonk hit maker Jon Pardi has just released a surprise album of live covers, after recording some of his favorite tunes over one wild night in his own Nashville garage.
Dubbed Rancho Fiesta Sessions (after his house’s nickname), the project finds Pardi rounding up his touring band to keep their skills sharp as concerts are on hold, and letting loose on a handful of longtime live favorites. Eight songs are included, with Pardi doing standouts by the likes of country heroes like Dwight Yoakam and George Strait, but also Tom Petty and Prince. And then he figured, why not give it to fans?
If they can’t see him live, he’ll bring the live show to them.
“All these covers are of artists that I admire, and I look up to,” Pardi says. “There are all kinds of great names and styles of songs on here. I think the magic and the fun of it is all is in these eight covers of songs that I really like, or grew up singing.
“It’s all my band on this whole album,” he goes on. “We mainly did it to have fun and record, and it sounds like we’re in your backyard, playing for you. I hope the fans really have fun when they listen to it, and they enjoy it and turn it up. This one was for the fans, to let them hear something different … songs you may have heard before but, haven’t heard them like this. It turned into something special because it’s a year where we are off the road, and we recorded it live in real time, out at my house.”
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Pardi recently teased the project on fellow country artist Justin Moore’s podcast, and it follows his 2019 album, Heartache Medication. Pardi has been onstage a little this summer, becoming the first artist to perform a drive-in concert for thousands of socially-distanced fans at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium in early July.
RANCHO FIESTA SESSIONS Track listing:
- “The Bottle Let Me Down” – As performed by Merle Haggard
- “Honky Tonk Man” – As performed by Dwight Yoakam
- “Right or Wrong” – As performed by George Strait
- “Marina Del Rey” – As performed by George Strait
- “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)” – As performed by Joe Diffie
- “Somebody’s Doin’ Me Right” – As performed by Keith Whitley
- “The Waiting” – As performed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- “Nothing Compares 2 U” – As performed by Prince
