“Married Alone” – Sunny Sweeney (2022) [english]

In one of the previous stories I told you about an artist who started with a famous label in Nashville and owed his entry into the world of country music to mainstream radio, but then, as lightning struck on the road to Damascus had returned independent, Back to the true roots, to the country of people, that of confessions and strong feelings. A choice that had given a twist. Here are friends, Sunny Sweeney from Longview, Texas has done the same path, year after year has increased its popularity among fans of independent country music, those who drink at the source of Cody Jinks, Whitey Morgan and Dallas Moore and now with this new album, arrived 5 years from the previous, has absolutely become a reference of the Texas country and not only and the choice not to be dazzled by the lights of the city of music paid. Damn right she did! The work is composed of 12 beautiful pieces of an ancient but modern country, produced by the genius of Paul Cauthen together with Beau Bedford (of the Texas Gentlemen) and recorded in Dallas at the Modern Electric Sound Recorders. I can not help telling the story behind the delay in the release of this record, a truly dramatic story that could have turned into tragedy. Studio owner Jeff Saenz was supposed to be behind the console mixing the album, but on the night of 1 June 2021 he lost both arms and was almost killed. During that night at his home in Little Forest Hills, the electricity went out and he went out into the darkness of his garden to understand why, but he stepped on an electrical cable that had fallen and was electrocuted. He lost both arms, but was promptly helped by local musicians with a fundraiser and even at the end of the mix he was able to be present and help Sunny and the rest of the band finish the record. This adds emotion and tears to a record that will not leave many hearts indifferent. Sweeney with her lyrics tells herself, the country, as I often tell you is all here, there are no shiny parties on a fake pickup, but there are mistakes and broken hearts, divorces and descents in the abyss of addiction, there is family and solitude. This music if it is not honest is not credible, it must also be in a harsh and devastating way and Sunny Sweeney is one of the most credible performers of her generation, every year more and more. This is almost a concept album about the life of a human being who uses country to open his heart with sincerity, a woman who after two divorces writes a song with two other artists who like her have collected as many, telling each other, consoling themselves in a sort of catharsis until you wonder if a song can fix everything? If you love 1970s country, you loved Waylon Jennings and his outlaw band, when you start the first Tie Me Up you’ll think you made a mistake and put the wrong LP. A damn vintage sound takes our soul, violin and guitar, but then the wonderful voice of Sunny awakens us and introduces us in her biography in notes in a direct way. It’s a beloved piece, already heard, but never tired, indeed this version adds beauty. The title track, sung with the unforgettable voice of Vince Gill, is a poignant and melancholic ballad whose lyrics are a poem of broken hearts : “There may be rings on our fingers / But we are married alone”, a song that takes the stomach and that the two voices make almost perfect. The catharsis I was talking about is all, talk about your failures that are also the failures of those around you (and your fans maybe) helps to overcome, even if a tear probably lines your face while you sing. Someday You’ll Call My Name breaks the heavy air and speeds away with a honky tonk guitar, wild and fun, but it’s just a parenthesis because the next How’d I End Up Lonely Again tells us about the consequence of the failure of the love of the song that gives the title to the album. There’s loneliness, there’s bitterness and there’s the poetry of Josh Morningstar and Channing Wilson who co-wrote the song with her and as I said a few lines above, they shared these feelings with her and these feelings will invade your speakers. A Song Can’t Fix Everything sung in duet with the legendary Cauthen and written with the even more legendary Lori McKenna, is instead a celebration of the healing power of music, a piece that wraps the soul and lets you think that we often overlook the importance that a song can have for someone, what it can do is answer questions that someone can’t even ask about his life, and country is the quintessence of this way of making music. In Want You Miss Me the guitars are rock wrapped in a western ride, the taste is different from the previous feelings, here is almost the revenge of a happily single woman who takes revenge on her ex. The voice of Sunny Sweeney is the new classic of women’s country, if you are looking for an heir to the greats of the past, you have found one. There is also a delicious touch of southern rock in the guitar nibs in All I Don’t Need, on tiptoe almost, like the background of banjo and steel guitar, an intense song and a beauty that remains imprinted, The rest is done by the band in support of the artist who is of excellent quality. The honky tonk of Leaving Is My Middle Name shakes the foundations of an album more from intense ballads than from wild dances, but the thing likes and this emotional roller coaster is the secret of a great record. The work ends with another exciting ballad written with McKenna, Still Here, where Sweeney still speaks to us with an open heart and finds herself in the night looking at the ring on her finger, but seems to tell us (and here it is probably not only a personal confession, but also dedicated to the music itself) that she does not leave and is precisely still here. The text that concludes Married Alone is a kind of true conclusion, hard, but full of hope: “We hurt each other and we don’t know why / Sometimes love will hate and the truth will lie / By now someone else would have disappeared / But I’m still here”. Sunny Sweeney with this beautiful, sincere and exciting record, enters the list of female legends of country music. We get excited and cry together with her, dance with her and ride in the night with her, and then find ourselves lying alone in bed watching our troubles and wondering if really a song can not really fix everything.

Good listening,

Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it

(you can find original italian article at this link : https://www.ticinonotizie.it/sunny-sweeney-married-alone-2022-by-trex-roads/ )

Pubblicato da Trex

Sono un blogger e scrittore appassionato di musica indipendente americana. Scrivo gialli polizieschi e ho inventato il personaggio del detective texano Cody Myers.

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