Saturday, March 12, 2011

It seems I owe Sunny Sweeney an apology

So the alt.country/red dirt/Americana folks have all been pissing themselves over Sunny Sweeney's new EP.  I don't share the joy.*  Just in general, there are very few women in alt.country I like (I don't know why; I'm the same way with female priests: love the idea, but the execution always leaves me cold), and she's not one of them.  Her song "From a Table Away" comes off as pap--I've been upfront in my opinion it sounds like something out of Nashville.

Mind you, I haven't voluntarily listened to mainstream country music for about a year and a half now.

Went to Bill Miller's with my mom and the girls yesterday and sat at the table closest to the register...which happened to be the table closest to the radio...Which meant I couldn't not hear the music (I totally lack the ability to tune out sounds).

There was only one song played by a woman in the whole time we were there.  I'm not really sure who it was, but I think it might have been Carrie Underwood.  The only line I was able to even somewhat decipher was "I don't even know my (your?) last name".  Holy crap, what a horrid song that was!  The vocals were mushy, the music overpowered them, and, well, whoever it was needs a lidded bucket to carry a tune.  I really didn't know things had grown that bad in mainstream country music, and I realize now that I owe Sunny Sweeney an apology for saying she sounded like she belonged in Nashville.  I still don't like her, but she's not that bad.

Huge difference between milquetoast and aggressively sucking.




*Yes, I am well aware I'm alone in my dislike of Sunny Sweeney.  If you click that link and you like country music, I can almost guarantee you will like her too.  I don't like Charla Corn either.  I do like Lucinda Williams.  And Nanci Griffith.  And Amber Digby.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

...yeeeeah. That Carrie Underwood song is teh suck. As is most of her stuff.

I've heard Sunny Sweeney's first album was pretty good but have only heard one song from it, "East Texas Pines." I really liked it, though.

Borepatch said...

Epic rant is Epic.

;-)

AlanDP said...

That's not alt country. That's just Nashville Sound like all the rest. Nothing wrong with it, if you like pop music.