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**** STARS
Sweeney's voice is so country that she almost makes Dolly Parton sound like a big-city gal. An East Texas honky-tonk queen, she has that brash confident approach that once personified Patsy Cline. And maybe she could emulate Patsy by grabbing the total allegiance of those who remember the Opry the way it was. A capable songwriter, Sweeney also has the ability to select songs by such talents as Iris Dement, Jim Lauderdale, and Thom Schuyler and deliver them with so much panache that anyone else attempting competing covers will find that they've chosen a task strewn with a high degree of difficulty. So, make welcome this genuine new talent, though one who, at this point in time, lacks record company backing--a situation that should change with some rapidity.
-Fred Dellar - Fred Dellar
Sunny Sweeney
Heartbreaker’s Hall Of Fame
Self-released
**** STARS
A fantastic singer, a fantastic album—great stuff!
Despite the fact that Sunny Sweeney has released her debut album independently, this young lady is generating considerable interest in and around Austin, and having heard her album it would come as to no surprise to learn that this interest is spreading. Countless young hopefuls pay lip service to the likes of Merle Haggard, George Jones, Loretta Lynn and others from that era, but probe a little deeper and one finds that the majority know little about them. This is definitely not the case with Ms. Sweeney. She is more than familiar with their music and can talk at length about people like Townes Van Zandt, Iris Dement and many other singer-songwriters who have influenced her. Her deliveries may be contemporary—and why shouldn’t they be, but listen closely and you will hear a fine young country artist in the making. Born in Houston her family moved to Longview in East Texas, where she was raised. She spent a couple of years in New York before re-locating to Austin, where she currently lives. She has a rather pronounced nasal twang, something which the moguls in Nashville would no doubt attempt to iron out a bit, and her phrasing is pleasing, serving notice that she is doing anything but merely going through the motions.
Sunny’s choice of material is good, and having had a hand in the production one can reasonable assume that most of it is what she personally selected. She shows flair as a songwriter having included three originals, Ten Years Pass, a credible account of returning to a virtually unchanged small town a decade after having turned her back on it, Heartbreaker’s Hall Of Fame and Slow Swinging Western Tunes, although quite why there should be an unnecessarily long, loud rumbustious lead out escapes me. Libbi Bosworth’s East Texas Pines, an up-tempo number, takes the singer back to her roots but most pleasing to this reviewer was the manner n which Sunny tackled numbers like Audrey Auld’s Next Big Nothing, (which I am certain will not apply to Sweeney!), Iris Dement’s Mama’s Opry, which, had I not been familiar with Dement’s own rendition would have probably been nominated as a highlight cut, and Thorn Schuyler’s 16th Avenue which gave Lacy J. Dalton a top ten hit almost twenty five years ago. These tracks, along with the opener, Refresh My Memory, Here Lately, and the delightful tongue twister, If I Could are what convinced me that in this young woman we have the makings of a fine country singer. And then of course there is what must surely be the standout track, Lavender Blue, written by Keith Sykes and delivered as a duet with Jim Lauderdale.
There is a contemporary feel to the backings but that is not to infer that they are MOR. Bobby Flores makes a major contribution on fiddle and mandolin, and Tommy Detamore, who co-produced the album, deserves a special mention for is outstanding work on pedal and lap steel and Dobro. In addition there is acoustic bass, harmonica and banjo whilst drums and percussion are not allowed to dominate in the way they tend to do on many recordings these days. In summary, HEARTBREAKER’S HALL OF FAME is a strong debut from a young lady who shows a lot of promise. Bear the name in mind because there is no doubt that it will be cropping up again before too long. LK
- LK
Sunny Sweeney - Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame
Kathy Coleman
*****STARS
Sunny Sweeney is proof that it is absolutely possible to look like Faith Hill and still sing like Wanda Jackson. This drop-dead gorgeous blonde with her staggering blue eyes and winning smile has a voice just dripping with honest, one-hundred-percent true
country sound. Right off the bat, there's no doubting this gal is the real thing. She belts out her songs with all the power and conviction of a modern-day Loretta Lynn. This is
good stuff. When you hear the opening track of Sunny Sweeney's debut album, Heartbreaker's Hall
of Fame, there is no doubting this gal is the real deal. Her voice, her songs, her delivery, it's all so soothing to a heart battered by years of listening to people call
washed-up 80's pop "country," it's absolutely indescribable. This East Texas beauty spent a few years in New York testing herself as a stand-up, but obviously - and this is
clear listening to her songs - she was absolutely born to be a country singer. And by that, I do mean COUNTRY. The kind of country where you can smell the clover and the hay and the animals, hear the chickens clucking and the engine of the tractor popping along in the fields. Her tunes are toe-tapping, front-porch-rocking, two- stepping
classics, each and every one. There's not a weak track on this disc, nothing that stands
out clunky or out-of-place. She sings not only her own wonderful songs, such as "Refresh My Memory," the title track, and "Lavender Blue" (with Jim Lauderdale joining her on vocals), but also some spot-on covers, such as Iris Dement's "Mama's
Opry" and the best version of " 16th Avenue " I think I've ever heard.
- Kathy Coleman
The local honky-tonk scene has been a little gray lately, but here comes a burst of light from Longview named Sunny Sweeney. This debut is downright irresistible, with Sweeney's hankering for hooks not disturbing the hayseed charm. Produced by Heybale drummer Tom Lewis and steel guitar wiz Tommy Detamore, "Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame" is a sweet, drawling mix of wistful, melodic sway and dancefloor precision.
The queen of the Poodle Dog Lounge, where she plays most Sundays (next: Oct. 15), Sweeney has been playing live for only two years and yet her music struts with the confidence a shot of tequila will give to the prettiest girl in the room. Easy comparisons would be to Patty Loveless and Kasey Chambers, plus there are traces of Dolly Parton, though as a songwriter, Sweeney's got to orbit the globe a few times to be in Queen Dolly's ZIP code. Wisely, she gets most of her material here from seasoned writers such as Jim Lauderdale — the LP's spiritual adviser — Iris Dement and Keith Sykes.
This is local music that doesn't sound local. Catch her while you can; Nashville 's holding on line two. - Michael Corcoran
The DisCovery Award goes to Sunny Sweeney. I previously encountered her when judging in Texas for the inaugural season of Nashville Star. I liked her then, and I like her now.
SUNNY SWEENEY/Heartbreaker's Hall Of Fame
Writer: S. Sweeney; Producer: Tommy Detamore/Tom Lewis; Publisher: Songs of Sunny, BMI; SS (track) (www.sunnysweeney.com)
-The title tune to Sunny's CD presents a Texas thrush with a delightfully personable delivery that's country to the core. Extra points for the excellent harmonica and steel-guitar work, as well as for the pointed lyric.
--Robert K. Oermann - DISClaimer (Robert K. Oermann)
Independent female artists are rare. For every Amber Digby, Marti Brom or Miss Leslie, we'd have 10 who have the only claim to fame that they have paid to appear on a Gary Bradshaw compilation, in itself a recommendation to avoid at all costs. Thankfully Sunny is well up with the former three indie stars. Vocally she reminds of another fine artist in Elizabeth Cook and she has the added advantage of being able to pick quality covers to compliment her fine originals, though a new version of the song so associated with Lacy J Dalton, "16th Avenue", is probably out of place here, even though a fine version. Tasmania's own Audrey Auld's clever "Next Big Nothing" is given a fine read by Sunny. Hopefully it will be the start of some other Audrey covers. Jim Lauderdale contributes a couple of songs as well as providing duet vocals on "Lavender Blue". Her own tunes, although only 3 in number, are top drawer. - Australia
My current main musical squeeze, though, is a young Texas woman named Sunny Sweeney. She possesses an exquisite, pure, yearning honky-tonk voice that floats above the music the way that few singers' vocals can do. (Think Vince Gill, whose voice does that.) Her debut CD is Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame.
Sweeney is a talented songwriter, as evidenced by the title song (which, is not surprisingly, about the jerks in her life and other women's' lives) and by "Ten Years Pass" and "Slow Swinging Western Tunes," but she also seems an astute song picker. On the album, she draws from such skilled songwriters as Jim Lauderdale (who also sings a duet with her on "Lavender Blue"), Iris Dement, Keith Sykes, Libbi Bosworth, Audrey Auld, Tim Carroll and Thom Schuyler. As she writes on her Web site, "I've heard it said before that good cover songs are better than bad originals. I have written plenty of songs, but only the ones I felt suited the mood of the record are the ones I wanted to use on there."
She's been a regular performer at Austin's Poodle Dog Lounge, a cinderblock bunker of a honky-tonk that caters to people who are serious about good country music and serious drinking. And this is a serious honky-tonk album, steel guitar-drenched and sweaty and lovely at the same time. I know that not everyone still appreciates honky-tonk music. God bless Texas for keeping that proud music alive and well.
--CMT.com Editorial Director Chet Flippo - Hear This Voice: Sunny Sweeney
Discography
Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame - 2007`
Photos
Bio
Between having three dogs named Merle, Nash, and Dolly and an East Texas accent so pronounced you could pick her out in a crowded honky-tonk from across the room, Sunny Sweeney is so country she probably snores Loretta Lynn melodies in her sleep. That much was clear long, long before she ever got around to recording her debut album, Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame . So what the hell she was thinking when she skipped off to New York City shortly after graduation to pursue a career in theater or comedy instead of conquering the dancehall and opry circuit back home is anyone's guess. Maybe she was just testing herself — making absolutely sure she was as born to be a country singer, instead of, say, just another pretty young improv-comedian chick from Longview, Texas, lighting up the Great White Way.
Or, you know, maybe a waitress, nanny, dog walker or cubicle drone. Frankly, there was a spell there in her early 20s when seemed hell-bent on collecting as many different W-2s as she could instead of pursuing her destiny. And she actually did OK at the comedy thing — after leaving the Big Apple and returning to Texas to hook up with a comedy troupe in Austin. But every time a skit found her singing, it became more and more clear she was just putting off the inevitable.
“My friends in the improv group kept saying, ‘Man, you should try singing,'” says Sunny. “At first I thought they meant ‘cause I wasn't good at the comedy stuff, but they were just being supportive and wanted me to succeed at what they thought were my strongest points.”
Her family seemed intent on pushing her in the right direction, too. Her step dad, a musician and songwriter himself, had tried to teach Sunny guitar when she was a child, but it didn't stick. Years later, when he tried again, it did. So much so, she became obsessed. “He gave me a guitar for Christmas and taught me the three country chords: G, C and D,” she says. “The next day we drove to Colorado to go skiing, and I played the damn thing the entire way up there and back.”
That was all of three years ago. And she's been making up for lost time — with a vengeance — ever since. She played her first “real” gig, fronting her own band , in September 2004 at Austin's Carousel Lounge. In less than a year, she was holding down weekly residencies at multiple Austin honky-tonk bars and drawing a crowd at each show that countless other artists in the “Live Music Capital of the World” would kill for. She even scored a short “tour” or Europe, highlighted by sharing a bill with Dwight Yoakam at a festival in Norway. To say that even her most supportive friends were surprised not so much by her success as they were by how quickly she got her own ball rolling would be an understatement.
Mind, this all didn't just fall into her lap. As she puts it with her characteristic, matter-of-fact bluntness, “I have busted my ass doing this. The crowds at home started coming pretty steadily after four of five months, but those first months were the longest months I've ever had. I booked myself on like over 200 shows the first year I had a band.”
“This is the hardest I've worked on anything in my life,” she continues. “But I still cannot believe this is my job . I'm doing what I've always wanted to do, and, honestly, it's the thing I'm supposed to do because I haven't gotten fired yet!”
But the real proof that Sunny Sweeney is doing exactly what she's supposed to be doing is all right there in her first record. Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame , recorded in Floresville, TX and co-produced by Sunny with producers Tommy Detamore (guitar, pedal steel, lap steel and Dobro) and Tom Lewis (drums). It isn't one of those quiet, timid little baby-steps records that slowly grows on you with hints of future potential. It explodes into the room with an ultra-confident, Texas-sized “HOWDY!” and demands your full attention — now . Kinda like the time Sunny, as a senior in high school, marched into a choir class and told the instructor she wanted to sing Dolly Parton's “9 to 5” in the end-of-year-show — even though she wasn't in the choir and the teacher had never met or heard her before. So Sunny belted out the song on the spot and walked out. (She got the gig — and an admonishment from the teacher for having not auditioned for the choir sooner.)
Listen to Sunny rip and swagger her way through the dozen songs on Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame , and you can well understand that choir director's frustration: Where has this gal been hiding until now? The first thing that grabs you is her voice — a big, bold and brassy instrument that brings to mind both the classic female county singers of the '60s and '70s that she grew up on as part of a country-music-loving family (both her grandfather and stepfather are musicians) as well as two of Sunny's biggest modern influences, Natalie Maines and Kasey Chambers, at their most unapologetically untamed. It's a voice that all but screams Sunny's adopted slogan: “Get you
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