Single Review: Jon Pardi's Atrocious "Dirt on My Boots"

Some songs are bad by nature, poorly-written and full of knock-off cliches and keywords meant to trigger excitement in the minds of brainwashed music fans. In other cases, a song can be bad simply because the artist in question has done so much better before. That is the case with Jon Pardi's laughable new single. "Dirt on My Boots" isn't some songwriting feat, either, written by Rhett Akins, Jesse Frasure, and Ashley Gorley. Coincidentally, the song is the lone cut on Pardi's California Sunrise where these three names appear in the songwriting credits. If the mere fact that Jon Pardi recorded this song wasn't a hint of label pressure, the songwriting credits should undeniably give it away.

Premise: the narrator has dirt on his boots, and will take them off outside before he enters the house to get laid. Creative! 

As you can see, the lyrics aren't even worth discussing. They lack imagination and effort, sabotaging the integrity of the song long before the first verse is finished. As far as the arrangement is concerned, Pardi and his band try to salvage this mess with fiddle, but to no avail. Where one thing makes this song tolerable, something else steps in to wash that progress away. I think I even hear some pitch correction at the beginning of the chorus, but I could be wrong. One thing I'm not wrong about, though, is how truly horrible this song proves to be. I skip it every time I listen to California Sunrise, and despite the fact that I am damn near positive that Jon Pardi did not want to record this song or release it as a single, it's still disappointing. What about the success of the staunchly traditional (by today's standards) "Head Over Boots" gave any indication that Jon Pardi's fanbase wanted to hear something like "Dirt on My Boots" as the follow up single?

Here's to hoping the eventual failure of this single doesn't cripple the career of a promising young artist. Sorry Nashville, but the majority of Jon Pardi's fans lean in a more traditional direction, and they aren't going to tolerate this nonsense, and this single isn't likely to be a success. 3/10