“Artist development is the lifeblood of what we do, says President Cindy Mabe, UMG Nashville’s resident marketing expert. “It really encompasses working with an artist over time to help develop their sound, style, perspective uniqueness and ultimately find their fanbase. Generally, a lot of time goes into the art of developing artists. One guy we’ve been working to develop over the past four years, Jon Pardi, is poised for a huge breakthrough that will help change the breadth of the format and bring a different sound to it. He’s really developed out of his unique sound with a sense of a throwback to traditional country music. There have been waves of time periods in history when the country genre became so pop that a young traditional country artist broke through in the middle of a pop-leaning moment and swung the pendulum back the other way, bringing in young fans to country music. That was the genesis of the careers of George Strait, Randy Travis and Alan Jackson, among others. They all came out of those very pop-sounding movements in country music, and they brought young fans with them. Jon is breaking through the clubs and bars, and the fans are rowdy young kids. His songwriting was certainly influenced by those great artists, but it has Jon’s own perspective, gift for melodies and hooks and appeal to the working man. We just launched Jon’s second album, California Sunrise. We believe it will be a platinum album by the time we get through working it. He’s a game-changer, and so is this album.”

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