Sunny Sweeney Announces New Album “Married Alone”
There are only a few women out there in country music that you would ever dare considering using the exemplifying qualifier of “Outlaw” with, but Sunny Sweeney sure fits the bill. Though her career started in Nashville in the world of major labels and radio play, she’s a full-blown independent music maverick these days. She does things her way, or she doesn’t do them at all, and tours harder than most of the swingin’ D’s out there trying to sound like Tyler Childers.
The last time Sunny Sweeney released an album, she walked away with Saving Country Music’s Song of the Year for “Bottle By My Bed.” But that was five years ago now, and Sunny fans have been getting quite restless for a new album that she’s been hinting at for quite a while now Finally we have the details, and they’re quite interesting.
Called Married Alone, it will be released on September 23rd via Thirty Tigers. Produced by Paul Cauthen and Beau Beauford of The Texas Gentlemen, it features a ridiculous cast of co-writers, including Lori McKenna, Channing Wilson, Kendell Marvel, Caitlyn Smith, Josh Morningstar, and Brennen Leigh among others.
Sunny Sweeney co-wrote all the songs on the album of course, except for the title track. When she heard it, she felt it was more personal to her than something she wrote herself. “My jaw hit the floor when I heard that song, because I had just gone through my second divorce, which is also cliche of a country singer,” Sweeney says. “I was still pretty raw about my divorce, but also very candid and trying to find levity in the situation. You have to be able to laugh at yourself at some point and not let it just totally get you down.”
Recorded at Modern Electric Sound Recorders, Sunny Sweeney was able to convince Vince Gill to sing with her on “Married Alone”—one of two guest appearances on the album. The second is her producer Paul Cauthen on “A Song Can’t Fix Everything,” which is the album’s lead single.
“I was stepping into the elevator at my hotel as we were leaving Chicago after a great run, and this title popped into my head,” Sweeney says about the song that she co-wrote with Lori McKenna. “It’s about just trying to find those three minutes of happiness you get relating to something and taking yourself out of your everyday life. Letting yourself slip away, it can feel like it’s going to be okay, even if, ultimately, it may not be.”
Married Alone is now available for pre-save and pre-order.
TRACK LIST:
1. Tie Me Up (Sunny Sweeney/Buddy Owens/Galen Griffin)
2. Easy As Hello (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna/Heather Morgan)
3. Married Alone ft. Vince Gill (Hannah Blaylock/Josh Morningstar/Autumn McEntire)
4. Someday You’ll Call My Name (Sunny Sweeney/Brennen Leigh)
5. How’d I End Up Lonely Again (Sunny Sweeney/Channing Wilson/Josh Morningstar)
6. A Song Can’t Fix Everything ft. Paul Cauthen (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna)
7. Want You To Miss Me (Sunny Sweeney/Caitlyn Smith)
8. Wasting One On You (Sunny Sweeney/Buddy Owens/Monty Holmes)
9. Fool Like Me (Waylon Payne/Kendell Marvel)
10. All I Don’t Need (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna)
11. Leaving Is My Middle Name (Sunny Sweeney/ Buddy Owens/Galen Griffin/Scotch Taylor)
12. Still Here (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna)
June 7, 2022 @ 7:54 am
Nice to see Paul Cauthen rein it in for once and be a part of some decent country music, especially after the trash he released on April Fool’s. Country Coming Down will GO DOWN as the worst album released this decade.
I look forward to hearing more of this album from the fantastic Sunny.
June 7, 2022 @ 8:07 am
Imagine if Paul Cauthen had an album full of stuff like this?
June 7, 2022 @ 8:22 am
artists who release on 30 Tigers are far from “independent” bud
June 7, 2022 @ 11:41 am
Could you elaborate a little more? Maybe I’m mistaken, but I would say they technically are. The artists who distribute their records through Thirty Tigers retain control over their career decisions as well as own their music while receiving many of the same perks of artists on major labels (distribution, marketing), in exchange for a percentage of album sales. Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not an expert on this by any means, but if an artist wanted to start their own label, I don’t think there is anything stopping them from taking music previously distributed by Thirty Tigers and releasing it under their own label beyond its initial release.
June 7, 2022 @ 12:08 pm
Each artist who releases music on Thirty Tigers does so through their own independent record label. For Sunny Sweeney, that is Aunt Daddy Records. She retains full rights and controls over her music. She can come and go at any time. If she wants to promote her music to radio, it requires a separate entity, and trust me, corporate radio won’t be playing Sunny Sweeney. Thirty Tigers is a glorified distribution company. Sure, they have a lot of massive artists on their roster, but it’s because these artists want to maintain control over their art. It’s the very definition of “independent.”
June 7, 2022 @ 9:37 am
Thanks for the heads up. Doesn’t seem like its been 5 years since Bottle by My Bed. I am looking forward to this a lot.
June 7, 2022 @ 9:39 am
She understands humor in lyrics more so than most of her contemporaries. That’s something sadly lost in country music today.
June 8, 2022 @ 10:20 pm
Absolutely agree! She’s a blast to see live. Good music, and incredible raport with the audience.
Never forget her ‘torturing’ Harley Husbands by playing “if I could” faster and faster each time, and then playing it at a snails pace. He was such a great sport.
June 7, 2022 @ 10:01 am
Songwriting creds on this record got me pumped!
June 7, 2022 @ 10:59 am
She has a beautiful voice, and she’s a damn smoke show for her age. I’ve seen her live many times, and never disappoints.
June 7, 2022 @ 11:34 am
So what song is being referred to in the last verse of “A Song Can’t Fix Everything”? Since Lori McKenna co-wrote it, I’m thinking the song that “kept [her] on the road for a solid year” is Humble and Kind.
June 7, 2022 @ 12:11 pm
Great news!!! Trophy is one of my all time favorite albums. The thing I love about Sun is she plays our area often like Whitey & Ward. She’ll be here in July at Fitzgeralds I’m sure she’ll trot a few new tunes out.
June 7, 2022 @ 12:42 pm
Would you be willing to do a post about record labels in general? I’ve been wondering about Thirty Tigers for a while and I’d love to learn more about the whole record label landscape when it comes to country and Americana music.
June 7, 2022 @ 2:34 pm
Love me some Sunny Sweeney! She came to my area two years back I think it was and put on a great show! Hoping she comes back around to East TN soon. Can’t wait to hear the new music!
June 7, 2022 @ 3:40 pm
Very glad to see “tie me up” on here the live version is on my Spotify playlist and it’s fun clever song
June 7, 2022 @ 4:11 pm
A song can’t fix everything but some SURE come close. Can’t wait to hear the new work. A great song to kick it off.
June 7, 2022 @ 6:30 pm
I always liked her.
June 7, 2022 @ 10:31 pm
Sunny is talented, but she’s as much an outlaw as Shooter Jennings or Eric Church. I know this will make some folks angry, but there are few, if any, real outlaws left in music. Playing the role of outlaw, and being an outlaw are two very different things. Anyone with a sleeve tattoo, bad attitude or a bit of grit in their music is considered an ‘outlaw’ these day. The term long ago lost its sting.
June 8, 2022 @ 3:36 am
now half the girls in line at Trader Joe’s will have a sleeve tattoo..
June 7, 2022 @ 11:19 pm
Going to see her in the summer when she comes to the U.K. Excited.
June 8, 2022 @ 4:28 am
Love Sunny. She can do it all from radio friendly to Texas Country to straight up Honky Tonk. Best of all, she’s constantly country. Looking forward to this.
June 8, 2022 @ 12:02 pm
Totally agree about the Paul Cauthen comments here. He could have been a force in country music, but instead has become a caricature of himself. The past few years his songs just seem trashy and overly-focused on supporting an image. Not a hater, I just know he is capable of so much more and it’s disappointing. Time to find new writers who can tell a story and not focus on only recording songs you think drunk people will want to hear.
Looking forward to hearing Sunny’s album. She deserves great success.
June 8, 2022 @ 1:58 pm
Her new single is nice. Based on the tracklist, it looks like a good old fashion country heartbreak album. Can’t wait!
June 11, 2022 @ 7:58 am
Yeah,but if Ms. Sweeney qualifies,she should be considered an outlaw. (Frankly,from this ol’ buckaroo’s perspective,it’d be great to partner with some hot lady outlaw.) Please fill me in on some of her songs.