Jon Pardi Concocts a Different Kind of Drinking Song, ‘Me and Jack’ [LISTEN]

Jon Pardi warns against drinking in excess -- and furthers his commitment to bring the fiddle and the steel guitar back to country radio -- with "Me and Jack." It's the latest single off new album Heartache Medication, out Sept. 27.

A Johnny Cash-inspired opening riff begins a story about that other "Man in Black," Jack Daniels. The bad behavior that sometimes follows getting drunk isn't celebrated or treated like a joke in Pardi's new guitar-slinging single, although the main character treating a trip to the liquor store to buy a different brand, as if he's changed his ways, is darkly humorous.

Prior teasers of the new album began with the title track, which builds on the same fiddle countdowns and George Strait-worthy lyrics that launched Pardi's meteoric rise when he released his breakthrough debut, California Sunrise, back in 2016. The other previously-released Heartache Medication track, "Ain't Always the Cowboy," flips the script on an old trope by giving the woman in a cowboy's life a case of rambling fever.

Per Pardi, additional album cuts reflect fun nights at the watering hole, not breakup songs.

"I named it Heartache Medication because it talks about sad topics, but it makes you feel good at the same time," Pardi said during a media listening party for the new project. "It's a lot of uplifting stuff -- great beer and good times, you know?"

Four days after the album drops, Pardi will hit the road for a tour, beginning with a two-night stand at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on Oct. 1 and 2.

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