She Ain't In It

Album: California Sunrise (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • The moment Jon Pardi first listened to this Clint Daniels and Wynn Varble penned song about an ex, he wanted it for his California Sunrise album. The singer recalled:

    "When I first heard it, I had to listen to it over and over again, and it was just like was so like 1980s George Strait and just something that I hadn't heard in a long time. I had to record this. I have to. There's no question. When I heard it I was like, 'This is on the record. This has to be on the record. I want this. This is mine.' Trying to be anything but just pure country. It's got that heartbreak to it and it's got that moving on and just very good lyrics and a great melody, and it was one of my favorites to ever call mine. It's going to be great. If you like country music, you're going to like this song."

    George Strait actually had the song on hold, but when the veteran artist made it available, Pardi quickly snatched the tune up.
  • Clint Daniels and Wynn Varble are both longstanding members of the Nashville songwriting community.

    Daniels' resume includes #1 hits written for Joe Nichols ("Brokenheartsville") and Montgomery Gentry ("Roll With Me").

    Wynn Varble has contributed to chart-toppers for Darryl Worley ("Have You Forgotten?"), Brad Paisley ("Waitin' on a Woman") and Easton Corbin ("A Little More Country Than That").
  • The moody black-and-white video was directed by Jim Wright on location at a ranch outside Thousand Oaks in Southern California. The clip shows Pardi trying to about his everyday life, but he is constantly reminded of a girlfriend who left him to go to the big city.

    "The treatment almost reminded me of the movie Hud, starring Paul Newman," Pardi told Entertainment Tonight. "I loved that it was entirely in black and white, and a mini-movie. This is definitely the most cinematic video to date and leans toward the emotion behind the song and the nostalgia of long-lost love."
  • "She Ain't In It" was released as the fourth single from California Sunrise. Pardi told ABC Radio it was always in the cards for the song to go to radio.

    "It's not a single because of a really fast melody," he explained, "or a really catchy melody that's familiar with pop, or familiar to another genre, or a drumbeat, or a drum machine, or a whistle -- whatever is in a lot of songs in modern country… And hey, I'll admit it myself, it's fun. I'll dance around in your underwear. I mean, it's cool. It's not that song, though."

    "It's like a sit down and think about, you know, what the song is saying, what the melody is, how it feels," Pardi added. "And that's the reason I recorded it."

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