New Album Sunny War
Sunny War
To Release ‘Anarchist Gospel’ Album
February 3, 2023 Release
Talented singer and guitarist Sunny War has signed to major roots label New West Records and is set to release Anarchist Gospel on February 3, 2023.
The fourteen-song set was produced by Andrija Tokic and features appearances by Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Allison Russell, David Rawlings, Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Micah Nelson, John James Tourville of The Deslondes, Kyshona Armstrong, Dennis Crouch, The School Zone Children’s Choir, and more.
All songs were written by Sunny War with the exception of “Baby Bitch” (Ween) and “Hopeless” (Van Hunt). According to the media release, the set of songs “draw on a range of ideas and styles: ecstatic gospel, dusty country blues, thoughtful folk, rip-roaring rock and roll, even avant garde studio experiments”.
“I feel like there are two sides of me. One of them is very self-destructive, and the other is trying to work with that other half to keep things balanced…Everybody is a beast just trying their hardest to be good. That’s what it is to be human. You’re not really good or bad. You’re just trying to stay in the middle of those two things all the time, and you’re probably doing a shitty job of it. That’s ok, because we’re all just monsters.”
Sunny War
Here’s the first single from the collection:
As a teenager, she began drinking heavily, which led to her dropping out of school, and quickly becoming addicted to heroin and meth. For money, she busked along the boardwalks of Venice Beach, recording an album to sell out of her guitar case and letting that self-destructive side win most of the battles. A series of seizures landed her in a sober living facility in Compton, so emaciated that she could only wear children’s pajamas. Music remained a lifeline, and she fell in with a crew at Hen House Studios in Venice, where over the years she made a series of albums and EPs, including 2018’s With the Sun and 2021’s Simple Syrup.
Twelve years after she kicked meth and heroin, Anarchist Gospel documents a moment when Sunny War had finally gained the upper hand on her self-destructive side, only to watch that stability crumble.
After a difficult breakup and her lease in Los Angeles ended, Sunny moved to Nashville, where she was born and lived until she was twelve years old. Among the items she packed were demos for several new songs of heartache and hard-won hope. She booked sessions with Tokic and captured a raw energy in Anarchist Gospel. As the recording wound down, Sunny received word that her father was in the hospital and wasn’t going to make it. She says, “This album represents such a crazy period in my life, between the breakup and the move to Nashville and my dad dying. But now I feel like the worst parts are over. What I learned, I think, is that the best thing to do is just to feel everything and deal with it. Just feel everything.”
Sunny War also announced her initial tour dates in support of Anarchist Gospel – link below.
Sunny War Anarchist Gospel Track Listing:
1. Love’s Death Bed
2. No Reason
3. Shelter And Storm
4. I Got No Fight
5. Swear To Gawd
6. Earth
7. New Day
8. Baby Bitch
9. His Love
10. Hopeless
11. Higher
12. Test Dummy
13. Sweet Nothing
14. Whole
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New Album Sunny War
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