Sunny Sweeney w/ special guest Brit Taylor

Doors: 8pm

Special Guest: Brit Taylor 9pm

Sunny Sweeney: 10:30pm

SUNNY SWEENEY: Following your instincts is not as easy as Sunny Sweeney makes it look. A patron saint of broken hearts on the mend, Sweeney comforts the rest of us by being honest with herself––and everybody else. She is her generation’s sly country conscience, warm but stubborn, sad but funny, rowdy but thoughtful. For Sweeney, doing what she wants has meant crafting smart honky tonk for about two decades. Her new album Rhinestone Requiem is a delectable testament to that love, brimming with achingly pretty melodies and grown-up storytelling. It’s also an expertly assembled grab bag of the traditional song structures that have built country music, one three-quarter whirl at a time. If anyone has the bona fides to be country music’s loving, defiant standard-bearer, it’s Sweeney. In addition to releasing 5 critically acclaimed albums since her 2006 debut Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame, she has become a trusted song curator and advocate for other artists as the host of her SiriusXM shows The Sunny Side of Life on Outlaw Country and Sunny Side Up on Willie’s Roadhouse. Sweeney keeps adding new feathers to her signature hat: She and her longtime guitarist Harley Husbands produced Rhinestone Requiem and are working as producers on additional projects. 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. The release of Rhinestone Requiem represents another milestone. Sweeney takes her calling as friend to the hurt and alone seriously––and Rhinestone Requiem shines because of it. “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.

BRIT TAYLOR: You’d be hard-pressed to find a country singer with a stronger pedigree than Brit Taylor. Born and raised in Eastern Kentucky right in the middle of a small region that has given us the likes of Loretta Lynn, Keith Whitley, The Judds, and Tyler Childers, Taylor is Appalachian to her bones, and she possesses a deep understanding of the place and its people that well serves her new album, Land of the Forgotten. With her third studio album Taylor says she’s finally achieved the sound she’s been going for since she first arrived in Music City. Taylor has been singing professionally since she was seven years old, when she became a cast member for the Kentucky Opry as one of their “junior pros”. Her vocal style is rich and layered, with notes that trill high as a Kentucky warbler and tonal prowess that is able to prowl low and steady. Her childhood singing teacher taught her how to breathe and protect her voice but insisted that she retain the innate character of her voice, which can move effortlessly from high lonesome sounds to smooth ballads to low growls. For Land of the Forgotten she enlisted a producer who knows her voice well—her husband, acclaimed singer-songwriter and guitarist Adam Chaffins. Most of the songs on Land of the Forgotten were written by Taylor and Chaffins along with Grammy-nominated Adam Wright, who has written songs for artists such as Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, and others, and who collaborated on eight of the twelve tracks. Taylor says Land of the Forgotten is influenced by country and bluegrass from the 80s and 90s but it’s also a decidedly contemporary-sounding recording that looks at issues facing all of us today. While she says Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, and Patty Loveless are major inspirations for the record, Land of the Forgotten establishes her as an artist with a singular vision—and a sound all her own. She’s achieved that by deciding to be herself.

GENERAL ADMISSION: $25 (+ $6.50 service fee)