★★★★★
As a modern country music singer with a retro streak, Sunny Sweeney walks a narrow tightrope laid out for females in the format. It's a daunting challenge to court radio programmers and connect with a wide audience while maintaining your own distinct persona, but Sweeney's persistence pays off on her second album, Concrete...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
Sunny Sweeney's got the chops: a hard-bitten Texas twang that can cut with both coyness and attitude, unapologetic about the kind of country she was raised on. Which is what makes the Longview native's sophomore LP so disappointing. Concrete is gritty but so watered down by contemporary Nashville arrangements that nothing sticks...
- www.austinchronicle.com
2011-10-03
★★★★★
The disappearance of solo women from country radio has been the crisis du jour in country music circles over the last few months, with the majority of commentators and pundits using it as an opportunity to rail against radio programmers' narrow playlists and demographic baiting. A less popular, possibly more controversial counterpoint? The solo women in country music haven't been releasing a whole hell of a lot of quality material lately and seriously need to get their collective shit together...
- www.slantmagazine.com
2011-08-29
★★★★★
Much like 70s R&B; icon Bill Withers, Sunny Sweeney got her start as a professional musician later than the typical singer/songwriter does. Sunny was in her mid-late twenties when she got her start while Bill was 32 and both had no real idea how to play an instrument at their starting points. Sunny eventually learned guitar and thanks to a lifetime of listening to classic country artists, Sunny firmly developed a style and sound that can't be mistaken for anything but country music...
- www.roughstock.com
2011-08-22
★★★★★
From the very first notes of "Drink Myself Single," it is plainly obvious that we are listening to a Country music album. And when I say country music, I do not mean the mainstream crossover stuff favored by most radio dials. This here, folks is the 'real deal,' the cat's pajamas or whatever euphemism you can think of to describe what is honest and real...
- roughstock.com
2011-02-07
★★★★★
Despite being considerably shorter than the anticipated full-length sophomore release, this uncreatively titled collection actually contains more of Sweeney's own songwriting than Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame, the 2006 record that first set fans and critics abuzz about the prodigiously talented Texan. In fact, Sweeney has cowritten every one of these five tracks--and that's mostly for the best. Ruptured relationships are a major preoccupation...
- www.the9513.com
2011-01-24
★★★★★
Sunny Sweeney's East Texas twang is so pronounced, she makes otherSouthern-dialect queens like Jennifer Nettles sound like John Kerry.Though hers is the kind of roadhouse fare typically tagged "too countryfor country" and relegated to the alt-hillbilly bins, Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame has been picked up by a mainstream country label forrerelease, which almost restores your faith in Nashville...
- ew.com
2009-06-12
★★★★★
Sunny Sweeney is the real country deal. With the voice of an east Texas honky-tonk angel that evokes the sassy confidence of Loretta Lynn, and accompanied by a backporch symphony of pedal steel, dobro, mandolin and fiddle, this fledgling (she only picked up a guitar three years ago) singer/songwriter is nothing if not impressive on her debut outing...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-21
★★★★★
Sunny Sweeney is the real country deal. With the voice of an east Texas honky-tonk angel that evokes the sassy confidence of Loretta Lynn, and accompanied by a backporch symphony of pedal steel, dobro, mandolin and fiddle, this fledgling (she only picked up a guitar three years ago) singer/songwriter is nothing if not impressive on her debut outing...
- www.popmatters.com
2008-11-11