Country Music Blog: Sunny Sweeney

I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the Texas Lone Star flag flying high inside the BMI building on Nashville’s Music Row on Wednesday evening (Dec. 12). In front of it sat four great Texas songwriters: Bill Carter, Monte Warden, Bruce Robison and fellow CMT.com blogger Sunny Sweeney. BMI hosted a Texas evening, tipping the hit to some fine writers and a fine state that has produced some of America’s finest artists

Bill Carter began with his undeniably catchy “Why Get Up” -- a hit for the Fabulous Thunderbirds. It’s easy to see why this was such a hit -- it got everyone’s toes tapping from the very start! Bill delivered some great bluesy songs, and dressed in his trilby, he cuts a very stylish figure. Very cool!

Known to some Texans as the lead singer for the “best rockabilly band that ever was” (the Wagoneers), Monte Warden has since established himself as a songwriter with hits and credibility. He co-wrote George Strait’s last No. 1 -- “Desperately” and has had other cuts by Kelly Willis and Patty Loveless. He has also made some fine records of his own that would appeal to fans of the Everly Brothers and Chris Isaak.

Literally standing head and shoulders above everyone else was Bruce Robison -- the long, tall Texan himself! Apart from enjoying No. 1 hits with George Strait, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Bruce claims to be the writer of the fastest descending No. 1 in the history of the Billboard charts -- “Travelin’ Soldier” by the Dixie Chicks. Bruce can silence any room with his poetic accounts of everyday encounters, and he showed why many consider him their favorite young writer today.

Sunny Sweeney followed this in a way that only she could -- with charm, sassiness and down-home honesty. Her songs were a big surprise to many folks, and she more than held her own on that stage, and, trust me, that’s not easy. Texas once more showed it has an amazing stable of writers -- Nashville is clever enough to recognize that.

I think musicians pretty much have it made at a music festival. They show up, play for a while, and then they’re off the hook to check out the rest of the lineup. For example, The Wrights are a country duo singing at the Big State Festival this weekend in College Station, Texas. They’ll be appearing on the Bud Light Stage at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 13) and naturally checking out the music with everybody else the rest of the time. I invited them to share some of their top festival recommendations, and here they are:

“How about Willie Nelson? When we met we were wearing out the albums Red Headed Stranger and The Sound of Your Mind. We can say without a doubt that he is one of our favorite artists of all time. The fact that we are playing the same festival is blowing our minds. You know where we will be at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday! What about Lyle Lovett and Leon Russell? If you're looking for some soul this weekend, this is where you need to be. Need more? How about Charlie Louvin? He was a part of one of the greatest duos of all time. When we need to be reminded of what harmony singing is all about, we check in with the Louvin Brothers. They wrote the book. Are you in dire need of discovering some new music? Do yourself a favor and look for Blue Mother Tupelo and Sunny Sweeney. You won't be disappointed.” -- Adam & Shannon, The Wrights

OK, I’m on Cloud #15,467,676,789.

As some of you may know, I played my debut on the Grand Ole Opry on March 2, 2007. I cried my way thru the entire performance. I was crying before we ever started playing, because the tech asked where I wanted my mic. He said, "So do you want your mic in the 'Circle'?" My response was "DUH!" So, Miss Waterworks over here started boo-hooing before the song even started. Anyway, long story short is that I can never take that moment in my life back and it was THE WORST performance I have ever done on THE MOST IMPORTANT stage I have ever played, and I wouldn't change a thing. I was petrified that I had screwed up so bad that I was sure that Pete Fisher (the Opry manager) would never allow me to set foot on that stage again, but, in fact, he did: Friday and Saturday night (Aug. 24-25). I got to work on Friday and at both shows on Saturday. I would like you to know that I didn't cry, but I was really nervous. Loretta Lynn says that if you don't get "good" nerves before every show, you might just need to find some other line of work. Well, Loretta Lynn, I was nervous enough for everyone there. But it was "good" nerves. Guess I'm in the right line of work then. ... HA!

The Grand Ole Opry is an institution for country music, and it is an honor to say that I have played there. Porter Wagoner introduced me Friday night and Jim Ed Brown introduced me Saturday. I have no words for what it feels like to have these LEGENDS that I have literally known of and loved my whole life stand on the stage with me and talk about me and welcome me into their beautiful world of country music like I have been a friend of theirs for the past 30 years.

Their Manuel and Nudie outfits that they all wear make me weak in the knees. These are the most sparkly get-ups you will ever see, and you need sunglasses to stand in the presence of Little Jimmy Dickens because he wears so many rhinestones.

Jimmy C. Newman stopped me backstage to tell me he had enjoyed my performance and asked ME to autograph my CD for him! What?!

Mel McDaniel is still so unbelievably cool and the most down to earth dude I have ever met. All I have to say is, "STAND UP ... TESTIFYYYYYYY!"

Jan Howard was a doll, and we went over and sang at the Midnight Jamboree, the second longest-running country music radio program ever. That was such a treat and honor to be asked to do that.

There are so many of these wonderful heroes of mine that are at these Opry shows weekly, and if you have never been, you might wanna consider going. I cannot ever remember getting nervous like I've been there. My hands shook to where I almost couldn't play guitar. But it's an amazing nervous!! The best part is that two of my really good friends and bandmates got to play it with me.

Traditional country is where it’s at, folks. These people I'm speaking of are the singers and writers that shaped the guys and gals that are country singers today.

The most disheartening part of the whole show for me was afterwards when I walked off stage and someone (who I look up to and love and respect but shall remain nameless) came up to me and said, "WOW, you sang a Kitty Wells song?” (He stated it as a question). I replied, "Yessir." Well, he then proceeded to tell me that that wasn't what he was referring to. He said, "Before you sang and as you were introducing the song, you said, ‘Are there any Kitty Wells fans here?'" Half the audience responded. He said it was a disgrace.

I tried to explain to him that this is why I enjoy playing that type of music. I feel obligated to at least do my part in educating those people that don't know they like real "country" music.

There are so many people that EVERYONE has heard of: Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline. Well, if you love them, you WILL really LOVE MISS KITTY WELLS. She influenced every single one of them. All of you reading this, if you haven't heard of her, it's definitely time that you go get every record you can find with her on it. She is the Queen of Country Music as far as I'm concerned. She doesn't have the bold and controlled voice that Patsy and Tammy had, but she has this unique voice with such a directness to it, that made you think every time you heard it.

I'm just sayin' ... .

P.S. -- The Grand Ole Opry will NEVER be uncool! If I ever sell out an arena, it will not make me as nervous as performing in front of those people that are standing backstage watching you work at the Grand Ole Opry!!

So, I'm sitting in Florence, Italy, at a train station waiting to board a train to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I'm on the phone with my dad, and I guess the guy sitting next to me was doing a little eavesdropping, because when I got off the phone, he asked, "Where you from, girl?" I said, "Florence, Italy," trying to be funny. He said, "Unh unh! Well, your accent don't come from here!" DUH! I told him I was kidding, and that I was from Texas, and he said he was from Tennessee, so we started talking. He asked why I was over here. I told him I was doing a tour with my band, but we were on a break, so I decided to come to Italy to see the sights.

As we were talking about our mutual love for country music, he just out of the blue says, "Hey, you heard of The Wrights?" Well, Shannon and Adam are friends of mine so I was completely blown away and immediately text messaged Shannon to tell her! It was so cool! He told me he saw them a long time ago and had been following them for a while now. He said, "You wanna talk about thick accents, man, Shannon's got herself a real good one." They are two of the most down-to-earth and talented people I have ever met. They wrote their first record together and it's stellar! I met them last year backstage when they opened for Raul Malo and we have just become friends!

Here's a pic of me at the Leaning Tower! It was so cool!

My name is Sunny Sweeney. I’m a Texas girl born and raised! I was raised up in northeast Texas in a town called Longview and now I live down in Austin, TX. I wake up every day and thank God that I can say I am a working musician! I cannot believe that this is what I get to do! I played my first real gig in Sept. 2004 at Austin’s Carousel Lounge. So many great things have happened since then and this blog is just testament to that. Who woulda thought that I’d be writing a blog for CMT? So here goes…

Last week, I went up to Washington, D.C. to co-host XM America Channel 10 with the on-air talents they have: Ray Knight, John Welch and Country Dan. I was on the air from 6 a.m. to midnight except when I went over to the Laura Ingraham show and the Voice of America show to play for a little while. I have never had so much fun! Ray Knight and I got along so well and it was like I was just his little sidekick! I wanna have a little show that I would call a “Ray of Sun” and it’s me and Ray Knight…Don’t ya like it?

I think I answered something like 500 phone calls in the all-day deal and met a bunch of my fans that happen to be a lot of truck drivers. I’ve also decided I am going to do a truck stop tour. I already bought a CB for the van and we are all coming up with our CB handles as we speak. I got some suggestions from the truckers that called in to XM and the front runner for me is “TWANG THANG,” that is unless you come up with something better.

The boys and I are leaving on Thursday for our first full-on Europe tour! We are touring in 5 countries, and we have a 9-day break while we are over there and I’m going to ITALY! I’m so excited! I’m gonna see the Pope and eat some awesome gnocchi…oh and buy some gorgeous shoes!

Hope to see y'all out and about soon! Make sure you come say hi!
Please check out my Web site and myspace pages:

www.sunnysweeney.com
www.myspace.com/sunnysweeney