We all know the power of a song to take us back to an earlier period in our life. We can be riding in a car, shopping at the grocery store, hanging out at a bar when a tune comes on that WHAM! takes us back to a time and a place when things were different. Or we could do it on purpose. We put on that record to feel how we once did and be reminded of a particular time, person, or place. For those three minutes, we are transported.
Sunny Sweeney‘s latest single and video, “A Song Can’t Fix Everything”, addresses the ability of music to stimulate our memory. The song also deals with the limitations of this function. While listening to a tune might bring back the reminiscence, it can’t change the facts. While there can be something sweet in remembering, it is essentially a bittersweet feeling because things have changed. Time has moved on.
Sweeney sings her self-penned (with Lori McKenna) ode with an ache in her voice and a Texas twang. She gets you right in the gut. Her voice is reminiscent of another Lone Star singer, the late Nanci Griffith. Sweeney captures that two-sided coin of innocence and experience of a narrator who lives in the present but remains true to the past self that still sees the world through youthful eyes. The video subtly captures this double vision by repeated showings of specific images that may seem meaningless in and of themselves (i.e., a suitcase, a desert) but carry emotional weight to the protagonist.
“A Song Can’t Fix Everything” is the first cut released from Sweeney’s forthcoming album Married Alone, out September 23rd via Thirty Tigers. Paul Cauthen and The Texas Gentlemen’s Beau Bedford produced the record. Cauthen sings in “A Song Can’t Fix Everything” as well.
TOUR DATES
6/3 – Mesa, AZ – Rooster’s
7/6 – Oxford, MS – Proud Larry’s
7/7 – Little Rock, AR – Stickyz Rock N Roll
7/8 – McKinney, TX – Hank’s Grill
7/9 – Coupland, TX – Coupland Dancehall
7/10 – Fort Worth, TX – Fort Brewery
7/12 – Tulsa, OK – The Shrine
7/13 – Kansas City, MO – Knuckleheads
7/15 – Springfield, MO – Southbound Bar & Grill
7/16 – Kahoka, MO – Clark County Fair
7/17 -Yorkville, IL – The Law Office Pub & Music Hall
7/20 – Berwyn, IL – Fitzgerald’s Night Club
7/21 – Milwaukee, WI – Shank Hall
7/22 – Minneapolis, MN – The Hook and Ladder Theater & Lounge
7/24 – Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge
7/27 – Manitou Springs, CO – Lulu’s Downstairs
7/29 – Cheyenne, WY – The Outlaw Saloon
7/30 – Sheridan, WY – WYO Theater
7/31 – White Sulphur Springs, MT – Red Ants Pants Music Festival
8/2 – Rochester, NY – Abilene Bar & Lounge
8/5 – King Ferry, NY – Treleaven Wines