Premiered today via Holler Country, coming tomorrow from Thirty Tigers;
Produced by Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford;
Sweeney’s tour continues next week at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands, Texas
Nashville, TN – ACM-nominated recording artist Sunny Sweeney has long been known for her uncanny ability to straddle the line of demarcation between Texas Country and Nashville Americana, but her latest album, Married Alone— premiered today via Holler Country, out everywhere tomorrow via Thirty Tigers—sets a whole new bar for the blurring of these invisible boundaries. Produced by Paul Cauthen and the Texas Gentlemen’s multi-hyphenate Beau Bedford, Married Alone is Sweeney’s finest work yet, bringing together confessional songwriting, image-rich narratives, and no shortage of sonic surprises for a loosely conceptual album about loss and healing. Recorded at Dallas’s Modern Electric Sound Recorders and mixed by the whole team with the help of Jeff Saenz, Married Alone finds Sweeney running through an entire spectrum of emotions without a single lull. Even the most heartbreaking moment of the album—the Vince Gill-supported title track—never ceases in keeping listeners engaged with such powerful imagery and earnest delivery.
Fans will be able to stream or purchase Married Alone in its entirety tomorrow at this link. Sweeney has amassed over 100 million streams across streaming platforms over the course of her career. 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 on September 29th in The Woodlands, Texas. A full list of tour dates can be found below or at sunnysweeney.com/tour.
Married Alone In The News:
Holler Country premiered the album and wrote “A country music fireball who mixes up a Tennessee songwriting suss with a Texas taste for trouble, she’s equally capable of mixing it up with music city’s mainstream as she is the outsiders and misfits from alt-country’s fringes.”
The Bluegrass Situation premiered album-favorite “Married Alone feat. Vince Gill.”
Billboard loved Sunny’s and Vince’s musical chemistry, writing, “Sweeney’s country-as-grits voice pairs wondrously with Gill’s pure tenor.”
Brooklyn Vegan praised “Married Alone,” writing, “It really is a powerful song, and both Sunny and Vince [Gill] sing it like they mean it, really delivering the raw emotion contained in this song.”
Taste Of Country called Sweeney’s writing on “Married Alone” “a raw, authentic look at what happens when a marriage has run its course.”
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:
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 9 – Atlanta, GA – Smith’s Old Bar
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.