BY LESLEY HASTINGS
With a total reworking of her hugely popular album “Provoked“ released recently (titled “Still Provoked“) to mark the original’s 10 year anniversary, a brand new album on the way next year and a 10 date UK tour next month, Texas’ Sunny Sweeney and I had lots to chat about last week!
An insanely busy touring artist, Sunny was sitting in her tour vehicle with a much needed (I assume!) “giant coffee” in between playing two consecutive nights in Grand Rapids, MI, for our Zoom chat.
It began by me asking about her recent Nashville shows…playing the Opry and closing out AmericanaFest….but not before I noticed she was wearing a Jeff Lynne/ ELO hoodie which I had to comment on as I’m a massive fan!
“Lesley, we went and saw them in Madison Square Garden last week….OH MY GOD! We were having the best time on planet earth, it was so fun. When he did ‘Evil Woman‘ I nearly s**t my pants“
So, back to the Nashville shows….how many Opry appearances now, is it still special ? And how was AmericanaFest for her?
“69 times, which is insane. I get so nervous every time I’m there, it’s wild. And yes, I was asked last minute to put together a wrap show for the Festival, which I was so honoured to do. There’s so many artists there which was cool cos all my friends were there, so I made some quick phone calls and we had Shannon McNally, Rodney Foster, Brennen Leigh, Jedd Hughes, Jack Ingram, Kelly Willis….it was amazing.“
I’d noticed that a recent run of dates in Texas saw her playing Austin’s “Sage Brush“, where she’d played her first ever gig….
“ Yes it was literally 20 years ago that week and I didn’t even realise it! It used to be called ‘The Chaparral’, it’s been redone and is now a way better club, badass and really cool. It was really weird, I walked in and was like ‘woh, I’ve been here before, what’s going on?’ And then I realised!“
We then chatted about her most recent release “Still Provoked” and I wanted to hear more about the idea of celebrating “Provoked” 10 years on and how she approached it……
“Last April I guess, a year and a half ago, I decided I was going to put these tracks out and figure a way to do it, because I don’t like it when people put out a 10th anniversary album and just remaster it. It’s like you’re not giving anyone anything new really.
Everyone seemed to have loved ‘Provoked‘ and I’m at such a different place in my life than when I recorded it. So I thought let’s just redo it….it’s easy enough, we know all the songs! Then we decided to add the new songs….I needed another love song and I love that Bob Dylan song ‘To Be Alone With You’ . And then ‘My Own Lane’ is really where I’m at in my life. Natalie Hemby and I wrote that about a year ago and I thought it just really fitted with the vibe of everything. She’s one of my closest friends, I love her writing and love writing with her. I’m just so happy how everything turned out.”
I then told Sunny how I loved the reworkings, and that they put more emphasis on the lyrics in my opinion ….there’s a more gentle feel than on the original…..
“That is exactly why we did it! I thought that the songs didn’t speak enough through all the extra production. I really wanted to do it ourselves too, without having someone dictate how it should sound. Harley (Husbands) and I work really well together, we’ve played together for so long, and we brought some of the songs that hadn’t got the love they needed to the top of the recording“.
I was intrigued to know if she “rediscovered“ any of the tracks, and had maybe consequently added them to her live set list…(her answer was my favourite track!)
“Yes, ‘Front Row Seats‘, because the world is a complete s**t show as you know! I feel it’s pretty timely. I forgot how much I loved that song . When you play as much as we do you don’t really have much time for rehearsals, a lot of times we end up doing the same songs. But we immediately added it back to our set“.
I pointed out the resurgence in the popularity of vinyl in the 10 years since “Provoked” was released and asked if putting out “Still Provoked” in that format was a no-brainer ….
“Yeah, people had always asked for ‘Provoked’ on vinyl but when we did this one I thought if I don’t put it out on vinyl I’ll be missing the boat. I’m actually shipping some over to the UK ahead of the tour…it’s a double vinyl and I don’t have a way to bring them with me.”
Sunny has been mentioning a brand new album in the works on her socials, so obviously I needed more information!
“We just got out of the studio last week. It’s done! There’s 11 songs on it, a couple of surprises which I’m beside myself about! There’s one song on there that’s a giant hit for someone else, I decided I wanted to record it and one of the original musicians from 52 years ago is still alive and played on it which I’m very excited about. And then I did a Kasey Chambers cover that I love, from about 20 years ago. The rest was written for this record specifically. Tommy Detamore engineeered it, myself and Harley produced it. Tommy is also an amazing steel player, he actually produced our first record ‘Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame‘ and we did it in his studio again so it’s basically like a very mature version of ‘Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame’. It’s very country, I’m so excited about it and can’t wait for y’all to hear it”.
And is there a date for a lead single?
“Late Spring/early Summer“
My impatient side wanted to know if we’ll get to hear any of the new songs on the upcoming UK tour….
“Oh ya! I won’t make y’all wait that long”
We then spoke in more detail about the UK tour, I wondered about the format this time and if there’s any towns/venues she hasn’t played before that she’s specifically excited about…
“It’ll just be Harley and I, we are with the band so much that it’s nice for us to have a little bit of time to ourselves. After the shows in England and Scotland we’re going on a little vacation to Prague, Poland and Austria.
And yes, there’s one place (is it called Berry or Bury?) that looks pretty bad-ass, I can’t wait to play there (that’ll be The Met, Bury btw!) and then The Lexington in London looks pretty cool …..and of course Birming-Ham where I saw you last year, that place was awesome! “
(that was The Kitchen Garden, btw….we then had a little pronunciation lesson regarding Birmingham!!)
I wanted to know what merch she’d be bringing as well as the vinyl she’d already mentioned….hoodies as it’ll be a tad chilly here by then?
“I was trying to decide about hoodies, they’re so hard to travel with as they’re so big. Last year I sold out of my hats, I didn’t realise you’d all want hats so much. I think I’ll bring some t-shirts and hats, and some people still want CDs but not that many…I already have my credit card machine borrowed and set up, the same gentleman Mo/Mohindra who helped last time ….”
He’s just a legend…
“Yes he’s so sweet, oh my gosh”
Then Sunny told me, as do so many US artists, that the best thing about playing to UK fans is ….
“You actually listen more than any other group of people I’ve ever met in my life . Y’all appreciate country music the way I, as a Texan, appreciate country music. You care about the words, and I can tell you just get it“ .
I then planted the idea of her, Natalie Hemby and Erin Enderlin touring here together…well, a girl can dream….
And (but very importantly….please let us here at Country Lowdown know if you can help!) did Sunny have any message for her UK fans?
“Somebody had better bring the best fish and chips, or tell me where the best, crispiest fish and chips is! Cos I’ll bring the rest….the music, the laughs, the stories ….”
So crispy is very important…..and does Sunny eat mushy peas with them?
“I eat extra mushy peas, I love them so much! The one thing I can’t do is the blood pudding, I’ve tried it , so gross! But I’ll grab everyone’s mushy peas!”
I finish by suggesting she could maybe use them as a face pack, similar to avocado….and we both laughed one final time before I thanked her for her time and wished her safe travels.
I can’t wait for the music, laughs and stories at the London show, who will I see there?
FULL DETAILS OF ALL TOUR DATES ARE ON THE COUNTRY LOWDOWN GIG GUIDE
Tickets for all UK dates on sale now http://www.sunnysweeney.com/tour
Stream/Download “ Still Provoked” here https://orcd.co/stillprovoked-eu
