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Taken from her forthcoming album, Rhinestone Requiem, due out on her own Aunt Daddy Records via Thirty Tigers tomorrow (1 August), album closer 'Half Lit in 3/4 Time' is a dreamy late-night waltz that reminds us all that when you're hitting hard times there's nothing like hitting a bar for a bit of good old fashioned "honky tonk healing."
"I’ll feel much better when I can’t feel at all," Sweeney sings as a softly sighing pedal steel hangs in the air around her. "Crank up the sad songs put me out of my mind / I’m getting half lit in three quarter time."
"This song, to me, is the sound of a slow unravelling heart," Sweeney shared about the song."It's a snapshot of the blurry space between letting go and holding on. We wrote it for anyone who's ever danced with their ghosts instead of burying them."
Sunny Sweeney has always been a country singer for the other side of a breakup. With songs like 'From a Table Away,' 'Staying's Worse Than Leaving,' 'Easy as Hello' and recent single, 'Diamonds and Divorce Decrees,' she's become something of a guiding light for country music lovers navigating life after love. Her new album Rhinestone Requiem though is written from a different romantic standpoint for once.
“This is the first time I’ve made a record when I don’t have relationship problems,” Sweeney says, smiling. “My last album, ‘Married Alone,’ was made right after my divorce. I’ve lived some life. Not all of it’s been pretty. But I feel like that’s what makes really good music.”
Born in Houston and raised in East Texas, Sweeney made her home the road before settling down in the hills of Hendersonville, Tennessee, a couple of years ago. Rhinestone Requiem represents is her sixth studio album since Concrete in 2011. Recorded at Tommy Detamore’s Cherry Ridge Studio in Floresville, Texas, the album is a compelling snapshot of an artist who knows who she is and what she loves.
“I really wanted this album to be a mixture of all the old styles of country music: Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn,” Sweeney says, ticking off a list of some of her idols. “I make music for myself.”
"I tried to make Rhinestone Requiem for the listeners who never stopped bleeding for country music," she says. "We've all loved hard and lost hard, yet still show up to fight the good fight. These songs came from years of late nights and hard lessons. I wanted Rhinestone Requiem to sound like real life. Every song is a page from my story and I didn't skip the message chapters."
Listen to 'Half Lit in 3/4 Time' exclusively on Holler below
Rhinestone Requiem is released on 1 August on Aunt Daddy Records via Thirty Tigers. Presave and Preorder here.
