Sunny Michaela Sweeney (born December 7, 1976) is an American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
singer and songwriter. She is signed to the Thirty Tigers label. She was formerly with the
Republic Nashville
BMLG Records, formerly Republic Nashville, is a record label established in 2009 by Republic Records in New York and Big Machine Records in Nashville. It is headquartered on Music Row and utilizes the combined resources of Big Machine Records and ...
label and
Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by fo ...
. Her debut album, ''Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame'', was independently issued in 2006 and then regionally released in 2007. It produced three regional (Texas, Oklahoma) singles in "If I Could", "Ten Years Pass" and "East Texas Pines", and these songs charted on the Texas Music Chart. In June 2010, the lead-off to her second studio album, "
From a Table Away," became her first single to chart.
Biography
![Sunny Sweeney](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Sunny_Sweeney.jpg)
Sweeney was born in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
. Initially, Sweeney lived in Austin, TX, and went to
Southwest Texas State University
Texas State University is a public university, public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin, Greater Austin metropolitan area ...
. She moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to take a break from school. Once ready to face school again, she returned to Texas and got a degree in Public Relations from SWT.
After college, she started a band and played local bars in Austin and began to branch out and play around Texas. She put out her first album with the production help of Tommy Detamore in March 2006. After gaining a following on the club circuit in her native Texas, Sweeney signed to the independent
Big Machine Records
Big Machine Records is an American independent record label, distributed by Universal Music Group. Specializing in country and pop artists, Big Machine is based on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. The label was founded in September 2005 by fo ...
label.
She also toured throughout
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
in 2007.
Her debut album, ''Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame'', was initially self-released in March 2006, and was reissued in March 2007 on Big Machine.
In 2009, Sweeney was signed as the first artist to
Republic Nashville
BMLG Records, formerly Republic Nashville, is a record label established in 2009 by Republic Records in New York and Big Machine Records in Nashville. It is headquartered on Music Row and utilizes the combined resources of Big Machine Records and ...
, a newly founded joint venture between Big Machine and
Universal Republic Records
Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an i ...
. Her first single for the label is "
From a Table Away," which was released on June 28, 2010. It became her first chart single when it debuted at No. 58 on the U.S. ''Billboard''
Hot Country Songs
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...
chart for the week of June 26, 2010. In March 2011, the song entered the Top 10 of the chart.
Republic Nashville released Sweeney's second studio album, ''
Concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
'' on August 23, 2011.
The album was produced by
Brett Beavers
Brett Beavers (born in Waco, Texas), is an American country music songwriter and producer and the co-author of the book ''Something Worth Leaving Behind''.
Education and early career
Beavers attended Baylor University, where he earned a bachelo ...
consists of ten tracks, including one co-written with
Radney Foster
Radney Muckleroy Foster (born July 20, 1959) is an American country music singer-songwriter, musician and music producer. Initially a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, Foster made his recording debut as part of the Foster & Lloyd duo, recording ...
and Jay Clementi.
"
Staying's Worse Than Leaving
"Staying's Worse Than Leaving" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Sunny Sweeney. It was released in May 2011 as the second single from her album ''Concrete''. Sweeney wrote the song with Radney Foster and Jay Clem ...
" and "
Drink Myself Single
"Drink Myself Single" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Sunny Sweeney. It was released in October 2011 as the third single from her album ''Concrete''. Sweeney wrote the song with Monty Holmes.
History
Sweeney co- ...
" were released as the album's second and third singles, respectively, and both were minor Top 40 hits on the Hot Country Songs chart. Sweeney and Big Machine parted ways in 2012.
In 2013, Sweeney signed a recording contract with the Thirty Tigers record label. Her debut label single entitled "Bad Girl Phase" was released in June 2014. Through the fan-sponsored
PledgeMusic
PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects; such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist p ...
program, Sweeney issued her third studio record, ''
Provoked'', on August 5, 2014. "My Bed," a duet with
Will Hoge
Will Hoge (born November 14, 1972) is an American Americana country music singer, songwriter, and musician from Nashville, Tennessee, United States.
Early life
Will Hoge was born and grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, located just south of Nashvi ...
, was released in early 2015 as the album's second single.
Dreamer: A Tribute to Kent Finlay, released in early 2016 on Austin-based Eight 30 Records, features Sweeney and Randy Rogers' duet "Between You and Me."
Sweeney's fourth studio album, ''Trophy'', was released on March 10, 2017.
Sweeney released her first live album, ''Recorded Live At The Machine Shop Recording Studio'', on November 13, 2020.
Sweeney’s fifth studio album, ''Married Alone'', was released on September 23, 2022. It includes a duet with
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist b ...
on the title track as well as vocals from
Paul Cauthen
Paul Mark Cauthen (born April 11, 1986) is a singer-songwriter from East Texas. He started his music career in an Americana/indie folk rock duo called Sons of Fathers, before turning solo. He has released three albums and an EP as a solo artist, ...
on “A Song Can’t Fix Everything”.
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
Extended plays
Singles
Music videos
Notes
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Sunny
American women country singers
American country singer-songwriters
Living people
Singer-songwriters from Texas
Big Machine Records artists
Country musicians from Texas
Republic Records artists
Texas State University alumni
1976 births
21st-century American singers
21st-century American women singers
Thirty Tigers artists