From upcoming album Married Alone, out September 23rd via Thirty Tigers;
Produced by Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford;
UK tour continues tomorrow at Millport Country Music Festival 2022
Nashville, TN – 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.
“Married Alone” is the title track from Sweeney’s upcoming album—produced by Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford, out September 23rd via Thirty Tigers. Fans can listen to “Married Alone feat. Vince Gill” now on at this link or watch the lyric video on Brooklyn Vegan. check out the previously-released singles, “Easy As Hello” and “A Song Can’t Fix Everything,” and pre-order or pre-save Married Alone ahead of its release right here.
In addition to the release of Married Alone, fans can now catch Sunny’s new radio show Sunny Side Up weekday mornings from 6:00 am to 12:00pm ET on Willie’s Roadhouse (SiriusXM channel 59) and on the SXM App. Her tour resumes in the UK at Millport Country Music Festival. A full list of tour dates can be found below or at sunnysweeney.com/tour.
More About Married Alone: Opener “Tie Me Up” declares that, despite its loose theme, Married Alone is not a somber 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 aforementioned “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. “Easy as Hello” is Sweeney’s writing at its finest, channeling 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 traveled 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)
Sunny Sweeney On Tour:
August 20 – Millport, United Kingdom – Millport Country Music Festival 2022
August 25 – Salardú, Spain – Salardú Country Rock Festival 2022
August 28 – Bottesford, United Kingdom – The Long Road Festival 2022
August 30 – London, United Kingdom – O2 Academy Islington
September 16 – Nashville, TN – AMERICANAFEST
September 17 – Nashville, TN – Grand Ole Opry
September 29 – The Woodlands, TX – Dosey Doe Big Barn
September 30 – San Antonio, TX – Sam’s Burger Joint
October 1 – Austin, TX – 04 Center
October 2 – Fort Worth, TX – Fort Brewery
October 5 – Chattanooga, TN – Songbirds
October 6 – Macon, GA – Grant’s Lounge
October 7 – Augusta, GA – Imperial Theatre
October 8 – Greenville, SC – Radio Room
October 12 – Asheville, NC – Isis Music Hall
October 13 – Bristol, VA – Birthplace of Country Music Museum
October 14 – Washington, DC – City Winery
October 15 – Philadelphia, PA – City Winery (The Loft)
October 18 – Rochester, NY – Abilene Bar and Lounge
November 9 – Lubbock, TX – Cactus Theater
November 20 – Nashville, TN – 3rd and Lindsley
January 26 and 27 – Key West, FL – Truman Waterfront Park
April 15-19 – Galveston, TX – Rock The Coast Music Cruise
For all tour dates and ticket information, please visit sunnysweeney.com/tour.