Sunny Sweeney Is Joined By Vince Gill For Devastating New Song “Married Alone”
From upcoming album Married Alone, out September 23rd via Thirty Tigers
Produced by Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford
Listen here: https://orcd.co/marriedalone-single
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Fresh from performances at The Long Road and Millport festivals and taking to the stage at London’s O2 Academy Islington tonight, Sunny Sweeney has released the title track from her forthcoming album Married Alone. The stunning track, sure to become a country classic, features Vince Gill as guest vocalist. Listen to “Married Alone feat. Vince Gill” now at this link:https://orcd.co/marriedalone-single
The new album Married Alone, produced by Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford, is out September 23rd via Thirty Tigers. Pre-order Married Alone ahead of its release here: https://orcd.co/marriedalone.
When Sunny Sweeney’s trusted friend sent her a demo of “Married Alone” in April of 2019, she immediately, deeply connected with the song. “I was coming out of a sticky divorce, and all the feelings were still so raw,” she remembers. “I felt the words, not just heard them.”
The weaving, waltzing number is a classic country dagger to the heart made even more lonesome with the addition of guest vocalist Vince Gill. “My initial instinct was to have a male feature, and my mind immediately went to Vince,” says Sweeney. “I then committed to him in my mind, and thought if he was unavailable, then I would just do it alone.” The pair of voices singing the chorus—“There may be rings on our fingers, but we’re married alone”—reflect the beautiful misery captured in the song’s message, adding it to the list of all-time-great heartbreak songs. “I am eternally grateful to [Vince] for lending his gorgeous voice to this, as I feel like it pushed it to another level,” she says.
More About Married Alone:
Opener “Tie Me Up” declares that, despite its loose theme, Married Alone is not a sombre record, with Sweeney in full spitfire mode and cheekily declaring to a would-be suitor, “You can tie me up, but baby you can’t tie me down.” Cauthen’s and Bedford’s production especially shines on the track, which would sound at home at a roadside juke joint or in front of thousands of fans at a festival.
Cauthen joins Sweeney on the first single “A Song Can’t Fix Everything,” one of the album’s rawer moments. “Want You to Miss Me” is an honest take on the complexities of a difficult breakup, with Sweeney’s nimble vocal wavering between defiance and doubt. Second single “Easy as Hello” is Sweeney’s writing at its finest, channelling the heartache that comes with the end of a treasured relationship, for a track that recalls —vocally and lyrically—the work of Stevie Nicks.
“Someday You’ll Call My Name” reads like a break-up kiss-off—and it’s a great one, at that—but the song, pulled from Sweeney’s vault, was originally inspired by her early days as a musician, longing to be recognized by major country institutions like the Grand Ole Opry. She and co-writer Brennen Leigh reworked their 10-year-old version of the track to better fit Married Alone, and that session helped set the tone for what would become the full album.
The full potential of the album really revealed itself, though, when a friend sent Sweeney a demo of what would become its title track, “Married Alone.” Though she wasn’t a co-writer on the track, Sweeney felt her own story reflected in its lyrics. The song, which features a particularly emotional guest vocal from living country legend Vince Gill, charts the painful moments sometimes experienced in marriages that have run their course. “There may be rings on our fingers, but we’re married alone,” she and Gill sing, over weeping pedal steel and reverbed guitar. “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, with a laugh. “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.” A few months after securing the song and mining her own vault for a tracklist, Sweeney travelled to Dallas, TX, to record—alongside Cauthen and Bedford—what would become Married Alone.
Married Alone track listing:
Tie Me Up (Sunny Sweeney/Buddy Owens/Galen Griffin)
Easy As Hello (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna/Heather Morgan)
Married Alone ft. Vince Gill (Hannah Blaylock/Josh Morningstar/Autumn McEntire)
Someday You’ll Call My Name (Sunny Sweeney/Brennen Leigh)
How’d I End Up Lonely Again (Sunny Sweeney/Channing Wilson/Josh Morningstar)
A Song Can’t Fix Everything ft. Paul Cauthen (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna)
Want You To Miss Me (Sunny Sweeney/Caitlyn Smith)
Wasting One On You (Sunny Sweeney/Buddy Owens/Monty Holmes)
Fool Like Me (Waylon Payne/Kendell Marvel)
All I Don’t Need (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna)
Leaving Is My Middle Name (Sunny Sweeney/ Buddy Owens/Galen Griffin/Scotch Taylor)
Still Here (Sunny Sweeney/Lori McKenna)
More About Sunny Sweeney:
Sunny Sweeney is a country and Americana artist from Texas, currently based in Nashville, TN. Her latest album is Married Alone, a raw, vulnerable exploration of loss, grief, and healing recorded in Dallas, TX, and co-produced by fellow country artist Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford. Sweeney debuted in 2006 with the acclaimed Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame, which announced her as an important new voice in country and Americana songwriting. 2011’s Concrete produced the top 40 country singles “From a Table Away,” “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving” and “Drink Myself Single,” and led to a Top Female Artist nomination at the 2013 ACM Awards. Sweeney continued to expand upon the traditional-leaning, forward-thinking sound of her earlier work with 2014’s Provoked and 2017’s Trophy, both of which earned Sweeney rave reviews across the country and roots communities.