Sunny Sweeney- Married Alone
Label: Aunt Daddy
Producers: Paul Cauthen, Beau Bedford
In an alternative, and much more just, country music universe, Sunny Sweeney would have found herself joining female superstars like Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert at the top of the Music City mountain for the last decade and a half. Her authentic yet modern brand of C&W continues to pull from a deep well of the best and most varied female giants in the genre: the twang of Loretta Lynn, the authentic country-rock production of Emmylou Harris or Patty Loveless, the biting and literate lyricism of women like Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, and the brash, ball-busting sass of Natalie Maines and Lambert herself. But with Nashville’s misogynistic mindset as far gone as it’s ever been, those skills simply don’t result in commercial success. Regardless, Sweeney’s true-life destiny as an underground Americana favorite has done no harm to her artistic journey, with this fifth studio album proving to be the most wholly-realized album in an already fantastic discography. Her shit-kicking stomp has never sounded as brazen and fiery as it does on tracks like the opening “Tie Me Up” (an unapologetic and refreshing declaration of feminine, sexual independence in a social era seemingly defined by the unwriting of decades of equal rights progress), the barn-burning, finger-picking of “Someday You’ll Call My Name”, or the gloriously disgruntled temptation of “All I Don’t Need”, where she frankly bemoans, “I need falling in love with you like I need a hole in my head.” Never one to box herself into her own excellent realm of modern honky-tonk, Sweeney just as effectively pivots to the slow-burning torch of countrypolitan (“Fool Like Me”) or weepy Wynette-styled tearjerkers (“Married Alone” with Vince Gill). But none of these excellent tracks are as sonically tasty or emotionally piercing as “Easy As Hello”, a rumination on the gumption required to end a dead relationship so contagious and astute that its simultaneously burns and delights the listener. To put it as frankly as Sweeney does her songs: Married Alone is as solid of a pure country record as you’ll find anywhere this year.
Track Listing:
- “Tie Me Up” (Sunny Sweeney, Buddy Owens, Galen Griffin)
- “Easy As Hello” (Sweeney, Lori McKenna, Heather Morgan)
- “Married Alone” featuring Vince Gill (Hannah Blaylock, Josh Morningstar, Autumn McEntire)
- “Someday You’ll Call My Name” (Sweeney, Brennan Leigh)
- “How’d I End Up Lonely Again” (Sweeney, Morningstar, Channing Wilson)
- “A Song Can’t Fix Everything” featuring Paul Cauthen (Sweeney, McKenna)
- “Want You to Miss Me” (Sweeney, Caitlin Smith)
- “Wasting One On You” (Sweeney, Owens, Monty Holmes)
- “Fool Like Me” (Waylon Payne, Kendell Marvel)
- “All I Don’t Need (Sweeney, McKenna)
- “Leaving Is My Middle Name” (Sweeney, Owens, Griffin, Scotch Taylor)
- “Still Here” (Sweeney, McKenna)
The 706 
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