One spin through the debut of Austin-based singer-songwriter Sunny Sweeney and you may think you've entered a time warp: The Longview, Texas, native so hearkens to the honky-tonk era of the '60s and '70s that you half expect to find her on an old kinescope of one of those syndicated Nashville TV shows, the special guest ("Let's bring up a little gal now from Texas...") of the Wilburn Brothers or Porter and Dolly. Sweeney isn't a power vocalist--she'd be called a "girl singer" in the old days, stepping up demurely to do her song or two--but she's got a sense of humor, poking fun of herself on "Next Big Nothing" and insisting if you play one song in reverse, you get a broken heart. She can also cop an attitude when she wants, as on "Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame," an original tune where she evokes the good-ol'-gal assertiveness of Loretta Lynn. Sweeney has fine taste in covers, too, offering up Iris DeMent's 'Mama's Opry" and the Lacy J. Dalton hit "16th Avenue," as well as two songs by Jim Lauderdale, who lends his vocals to Keith Sykes's "Lavender Blue." Otherwise, Sweeney doesn't seem to care a flip about what's going on anyplace but right there in the Lone Star State, keeping things twangy, tangy, and tonkin', the teardrop pedal steel functioning almost as a duet vocalist, and her guitarists eschewing Music City formula riffs for stuttering electric solos and the occasional walking bass. It's been a long time since any young female--think Joy Lynn White, maybe--got this deep-dish country. Sweeney may never get on the radio, but she'll keep the sawdust swirling on the dance floor for a long time to come. --Alanna Nash
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