[7][8] Utilizing pedal steel and drums for its melody, the song was noted by Beville Dunkerley of Rolling Stone for having the underlying message of how Pardi's brand of classic country through a modern sound has remained timeless, even as various subgenres have played throughout the airwaves.

"[9] "Head Over Boots" was created in late 2014, when Pardi was at a Texas dancehall seeing couples dance to Merle Haggard and Bob Wills, and a chorus melody came to his mind that stuck with him as he worked on the instrumentation and lyrics with co-writer Luke Laird in January 2015.

[10][11] "Night Shift" takes the employment term to describe an intimate encounter that a male worker has with his lover after an exhausting day at work.

[7][14] Pardi was initially put off by the track's demo being "super-hip-hop", but fell in love with the lyrics that he added fiddle and steel guitar alongside to give the song more of a country sound.

[7] "She Ain't in It" was described as a "slow, fiddle and steel powered love-lost song" about a man attempting to move on after a still hurting breakup.

[16] "All Time High" and "Heartache on the Dance Floor" were both written on the same day that Pardi and co-writers Bart Butler and Brice Long were staying in Wichita, Kansas.

"[9] The closing title track on California Sunrise was created when Pardi wanted to write a West Coast shout-out for telling the story of "the beauty of California and the beauty of a relationship", aiming for it to be accompanied by a modern take on the "heavy acoustic and bouncy sound" associated with Bob Seger, Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey.

[21][22] The album's second single, "Dirt on My Boots", was released on September 19, 2016, and gave Pardi his second number one hit on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

[36][37] On October 3 of that year, Pardi was announced as an opening act alongside Cole Swindell for Dierks Bentley on his What the Hell World Tour, starting on January 19, 2017 in Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

[38] On January 31, 2017, Pardi was revealed as one of 26 opening acts that would play alongside Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on their Soul2Soul: The World Tour, with him performing on May 11 at Tulsa's BOK Center and finishing on May 13, 2017 in Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Energy Arena.

[41] On May 25, 2017, Pardi was announced as being part of Luke Bryan's Farm Tour, opening in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 28 and ending in Centralia, Missouri on October 7, 2017.

[43] On September 28, 2017, he was named as one of the opening acts for Miranda Lambert's Livin' Like Hippies Tour, beginning on January 18, 2018 at Greenville's Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

"[48] AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted how the album has "space for softer tones and slower tempos," which allow for "experimentation with rhythms," and that Pardi's everyman image can hold him back sometimes, but concluded that "this workingman's diligence is a key element in turning California Sunrise into a frills-free, sturdily crafted collection.

"[47] Jeffrey B. Remz of Country Standard Time also gave note of the traditional instrumentation and image present throughout the album, concluding that: "Maybe from Pardi's perch on the music scene, what was old may be new again.

The magazine's writer Jon Freeman said the album is "compelling proof that traditionalism doesn't have to sound old fashioned," noting the mixture of fiddle and steel guitar with an "electrified Bakersfield twang" through modern production, concluding that: "[W]here many of his traditionalist peers looked backward for studied versions of the past, Jon Pardi kept his eyes firmly trained on the present.

The website's writer Caitlin White said that Pardi knows how to write traditional country narratives that don't sound like retreads and feel like a "fabulous break from crossover pop influences."