Sunny Sweeney is a fiercely independent voice in country music, known for blending traditional twang with sharp storytelling and a Texas-born grit that sets her apart. A native of Longview, Texas, Sweeney cut her teeth in honky-tonks and small venues before earning national attention with her debut album ‘Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame' in 2006. She broke through to the mainstream with 2011’s ‘Concrete,' which produced the Top 10 single ‘From a Table Away,' and has since built a reputation as one of the genre’s most honest and compelling songwriters. Whether leaning into heartache, humour, or hard-earned wisdom, her music has consistently reflected an artist unafraid to tell the truth—whether it’s pretty or not.
With her latest release, ‘Rhinestone Requiem,' (our review here) Sweeney enters a bold new chapter. The album finds her embracing vulnerability and resilience in equal measure, diving deep into themes of grief, rebirth, and the ever-evolving nature of identity. Produced with a keen sense of both polish and rawness, ‘Rhinestone Requiem' is perhaps her most emotionally expansive work to date—balancing lush arrangements with the kind of lyrical honesty that has long defined her artistry. As she prepares to tour in support of the album, Sweeney joins us to talk about the stories behind the songs, her involvement in Trisha Yearwood's new album and why rhinestones sometimes shine brightest in the dark.
Great to talk to you today, Sunny, thank you for your time.
Its a pleasure!
Before we talk ‘Rhinestone Requiem,' let's talk about your involvement in Trisha Yearwood's new album. Tell me how that happened.
Trisha has been a really good friend of mine for many years now. She's a really good human, like something of a north star for me. She had kinda asked me a couple of times over the years if I wanted to write with her and young Sunny was screaming on the inside (laughing) but, of course, older me had to play it a little cooler than that!
Excited doesn't really capture how I felt to write with Trisha – I was almost sick to my stomach! (laughing) The conversation kept going for, like, months after with no real follow up and I kinda thought that maybe she was nervous or something. I mean, I don't know why she would be nervous – she's Trisha Yearwood right? She was going through some doubt as to whether or not she was a good enough writer. She's so smart and had had her entire life to put down these ideas that she wanted to say in a song, I mean, they say you have your entire life to write your first record, right?
She finally sat down with people she trusted and all her friends and I think she has made a fantastic album. I'm so proud of her and excited for her. Some of these songs…… when I was out on tour with her I would sit at the side of the stage and almost be in tears and knowing that she actually wrote the songs this time around is so different and so special. Me and Erin Enderlin and Trisha wrote a song called ‘Goodnight Cruel World' and it's one of my favourite songs I've ever written – I hate saying that it's so good but it's so good! (laughing)
Does that mean that you and Erin could play that song in your live shows or does it just belong to Trisha right now?
We're like sisters so it would be a fun thing for us to do. Erin actually recorded that song for her new record too, which I produced with my guitar player, Harley. It's all very incestuous I guess! (laughing) I even said to Harley, ‘Well, maybe we should play that song too?' and he was, like, ‘Let's let them get it out on their records first!' (laughing)
I want to sing it, yes. We sang it all together at a Trisha show recently and that was pretty cool.
There are two songs on ‘Rhinestone Requiem' that you wrote with Erin too. We love her over here in the UK. What's it like writing and working with her?
She's one of my best friends. Her and Brennen Leigh are two of my closest friends and I feel very fortunate to have them in my life. Even if we weren't friends, they are two of the greatest songwriters that I know. I love writing with them.
I tell everybody that Erin is like a secret weapon! She's literally one of the greatest lyricists that I've ever met.
It says in your presser for the album – ‘This is the first time I have made an album where I don't have relationship problems.' Does that mean you had a sense of freedom making this record or was the writing more difficult because you didn't have problems to write about!?
You know, I've thought about that. Honestly, having had relationship problems in the past is kinda like a battle wound that never really goes away so you can tap back into that as and when you need to as a writer.
Did you have a clear goal and vision for what you wanted this album to be when you started it or did the songs just emerge organically along the way?
I kinda knew where I wanted to go and I always like to have that one song that is the centre point of the record which I base the other songs around. Once that song is in place I go back through all the songs I've written and see which ones will work in place around it.
I then begin to work with Harley on acoustic versions of the songs we have that I think will fit and then we'll listen to the flow and the feel of the album. For this album I added in a couple of songs that I wrote right at the end of the process of getting this album ready and one of those ended up being ‘Diamonds and Divorce Decrees' and that ended up as the song which we then based everything else around. I love that song, I love singing it, I think it's funny and yet also true.
I know you wrote ‘Diamonds and Divorce Decrees' in the aftermath of living out on the road for two years. What challenges did you face living a lifestyle like that?
It was, literally, the cheapest that I've ever lived! (laughing) No rent, right? All I had to pay for was my cell phone and dog food! There was a sense of freedom, for sure. We live in Nashville now in a house with all of our stuff in it and I do like having everything in one place instead of having stuff in a storage unit.
The album opens with your version of ‘Find it Where I Can.' What led you to want to record that song?
I love that song! I basically heard that song one night when I was Youtube diving – I heard Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley do it – I came unglued when I heard it and knew that I just had to record a version of it.
Sometimes songs, when you hear them for the first time, speak to you and you feel like you could have written it yourself and this was one of those for me. I couldn't get it out of my head, I thought about it every day for a couple of weeks after.
Some of the songs on the album were newly written and some you've had for a while. What's the oldest song in this collection that you've had in your back pocket for a while?
Probably ‘As Long as There's a Honky Tonk.' I love that song and it was one of the ones I wanted to centre this album around because the groove on that song is so cool. Adding the harmonica into that song was so cool. I'm so pleased the album is finally coming out – we've been working on it for over a year!
When I speak to artists like yourself about new albums they have already moved on to the next project because of reasons like you just mentioned and the time spans……
I mean, I'm already starting my new project so I get that. What y'all see is the finished project and it's all new to you but we have been living with it for a year or two in most cases. I'm already thinking about picking out and writing songs for the next record!
You seem to be becoming more prolific the older (not in a pejorative term) you get!!!
Well, that is very sweet of you to say. There's a sense of confidence in me now that I know what my strengths and weaknesses are now as a writer, singer and a person. I hang onto the strengths side of things and I know, as a fan, that I prefer songs that people write from personal experiences so I try to use my own experiences to generate ideas and I guess the older you get, the more experiences you have! (laughing)
‘Waiting for a Reason to Stay' is a personal song, for sure. It opens with the line, ‘I've always wondered what was wrong with me.' There's an openness and brutal honesty in your songs – have you always been comfortable expressing yourself like that or is that something that is getting easier with age and experience?
I've always been like that, yeah! (laughing) My parents raised me to always say what was on my mind and it's gotten me in trouble a lot of times! (laughing) My mom has always said that there has never been any doubt as to what I'm thinking at any given moment!
One of my favourites on the album is ‘Half Lit in 3/4 Time.'
That's probably my favourite song on the album. I love that song. I wrote that song with two of my best friends, Buddy Owens and Monty Holmes. We spend a lot of time together, the three of us, and on this occasion we where talking about waltzes and decided to write one. When I left the session that night I told Monty that I was going to put that on my record – I knew it was a great song right from the beginning.
I love writing waltzes but it's kinda hard to choose the right one for the record. I didn't want to put too many on there but I did have three or four to pick from but that one was my favourite from this current batch.
Tell me about the Kasey Chambers influence and effect on you. You recorded her song ‘Last Hard Bible' for this record and have been playing shows with her recently too.
So, about twenty five years ago I lived in Austin and I went to see her during the promotion for her ‘The Captain' album. I met her dad and we got on so well, he's the nicest guy, so sweet – he' still in her band now – We stayed in touch over the years. I've always been interested in the Australian side of Country music, I recorded a song by another Australian artist on my first album called ‘Next Big Nothing' by Audrey Auld.
I texted Kasey's dad when I decided to record ‘Last Hard Bible' and said I know you'll think this is probably stupid and you'll say ‘Go pound sand,' but do you think I could get Kasey to sing harmonies on this? He said I should talk to her brother, Nash, who also happens to be a friend of mine. I called him and said I wanted both of them to sing harmonies on it if I recorded it. I literally screamed with excitement when he called me and said they were going to do it! (laughing) We sang it together last night on stage with her!
Looking at your tour dates – you are out on tour for the rest of the year, it's huge!!
It's pretty intense, that's for sure!! (laughing) I am wondering how I'm going to get some sleep over the next few months but I am so excited for it! I can't wait to play the new songs live and visit a few new places along the way too.
Do you consider yourself a touring artist who makes albums to stay out on the road or an artist who makes music and then takes the songs out on the road?
I obviously would love to not have to play as much as I do but unfortunately, with the market the way it is these days, you have to do that to pay the bills. It's not by choice that I'm touring as much as I ma but I do love every minute of it. When I get tired I think, I'd rather do this than work at Best Buy, right? (laughing)
Sunny Sweeney's excellent new album, ‘Rhinestone Requiem' is out in all the usual places today, August 1st.
