Song Review – Sunny Sweeney’s “Bottle By My Bed”

We often believe that our favorite music artists have all the luck. They get to stand on stage and play the star, traveling the country and world doing what they love, always getting the girls (or guys), while the rest of us are stuck at home living boring lives. The truth is unless you’re selling out larger venues—or even if you are—the rigors of being a musician and the sacrifices you must make, specifically when it comes to family, and especially when it comes to females, is something that frankly most of us are unwilling to endure. This is why there are many who harbor musical dreams, but so few who possess the willingness for sacrifice to pursue them. So we follow along with are favorite artists and try to live the dream through them, vicariously.
But we choose to filter out the seven-hour drives in smelly vans, or the Super 8 motel stops, or the delay so many musicians must make when starting a family, if they can have a family at all with the obligations music requires of them.
Sunny Sweeney has pursued the musical dream her whole life. She’s seen it from the top when she was one of the first signees to the massive Big Machine Records in Nashville, to now coming home to Texas to put herself back in control of her own music and message. Sunny Sweeney delivers her latest album Trophy on March 10th, and ahead of it she’s released a touching and revealing single called “Bottle By My Bed.” No, this is not a whiskey lullaby. This bottle is a hypothetical one for the baby that Sunny Sweeny pines for.
“Bottle By My Bed” is the type of song that Music Row in Nashville gets its hands on and figures out how to screw up. So many song ideas start with an excellent germ of inspiration drawn from actual events. But through the songwriting committee process, the emotional brunt is “softened,” and that inspiration gets slowly sifted out. Lucky for us, Sunny Sweeney, who wrote the song with Lori McKenna (who happens to be on fire at the moment), stayed away from all the usual commercial songwriting norms of scrubbing the specifics out of a song until the impact of the message loses its potency and is pallid enough for the simplified palette of the musical masses, and they shied away from getting too sappy to the point of making the message mawkish.
“I don’t even know you yet, but I know I love you,” Sweeney sings in such a specified honesty that its hard to handle, and hard to not believe. It’s lines like this that even if you do have kids, or find yourself on the opposite side of the gene pool from being able to bear children, you can still put yourself in those shoes, and feel the yearning that is hardwired into the human experience to procreate, and love.
And even though at times in Sunny Sweeney’s career, including after the Big Machine Era, she’s subscribed to the Texas country style of music—meaning being a little more open to allowing a little pop and a little rock into your sound—“Bottle By My Bed” is stone country, with fiddle and steel guitar really helping to draw you in, and drawing the emotion out of the composition that Sweeney sings with a first-person passion.
“Bottle By My Bed” comes from the lineage of strong country music voices singing from the female perspective, but in a way that creates a broad audience from expounding on a universal truth, and from a perspective conducive to empathy.
Two guns up.
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February 13, 2017 @ 9:41 am
It’s a good song. I’m really looking forward to the album. It seems like we’re getting a bunch of really good female singer/songwriter albums right now, but for me at least, Miranda and Natalie’s blended together, so I’m hoping that sonically Sunny’s stands out a little more.
As an aside, while Sturgill and Maren both got big grammy bounces (yeay) , Lori McKenna’s album also got a really nice bounce (they all smartly discounted).
February 13, 2017 @ 9:54 am
She has been all over Texas lately. But this is a common trend for tx country after Nashville spots them out. I would argue there hasn’t been a lot of pop influence in tx country until recently. More traditional country and singer songwriter. Only since Randy and wade started having more contemporary success along with turnpike Troubadours (who might be the best country band out there right now) and uncle lucius has pop had a noticeable effect on tx country.
Yeah she is doing her best work so far if this is any indication. Very impressed, good review aswell.
February 13, 2017 @ 9:56 am
This is among the best work that Sunny Sweeney has done. The lyrics are meaningful and clever, and the production is natural and attuned to the content of the song. Great job.
February 13, 2017 @ 9:58 am
” This is why there are many who harbor musical dreams, but so few who possess the willingness for sacrifice to pursue them. So we follow along with are favorite artists and try to live the dream through them, vicariously.”
The other point I’d make , with regards to harboring a musical dream Trigger, is that the state of things mainstream-wise and sales-wise often leaves little to inspire a person to forsake all else and pursue that dream whole-heartedly . As country music has completely lost its focus in terms of traditions , I’ve known many songwriters who refuse to participate in that radio game choosing instead to write and record more honest material which is , perhaps , appreciated by fewer listeners but allows them a more authentic life artistically AND personally . To devote your entire career to an industry that celebrates a Thomas Rhett or an FGL seems a completely irrational thing for a true artist to do .
February 13, 2017 @ 10:21 am
Yeah, guys can get this. There are men out there who wanted to be daddies but for some reason couldn’t. I’m sure the pain isn’t exactly the same but it’s close enough.
February 13, 2017 @ 12:44 pm
Very true…I can relate.
February 13, 2017 @ 10:29 am
When I first saw the track listing for this album, I thought “Bottle By My Bed” would be a Jason Boland cover. I am both pleased and disappointed it isn’t, pleased because it comes from the pen of Sweeney and McKenna, but disappointed because that Boland track is amazing.
February 13, 2017 @ 10:45 am
This almost makes me understand the thoughts of those who actually want to have a child and raise a family. My sister is one of those, and she’s not able to. I’m the opposite. Don’t want any part of that.
She would probably bawl if she could make it through this.
Good song. I give it a negative for the “we wait” at the end, though. Why do singers/musicians do that? Let the song fade.
April 6, 2017 @ 6:22 am
It’s just a hunch but they probably didn’t do a fade cause the song is already pushing 3:37, which is getting up there – and they probably want to maximize radio play opportunities. I agree, fade out would have been icing on the cake, so when she gets nominated for a her grammy she can release another version with the fade.
February 13, 2017 @ 10:59 am
Great song that speaks eloquently to the emotional turmoil that many, many people in their 30s and early 40s feel these days after sitting out the kid thing in their 20s. This kind of emotional stuff is a big part of why I love country music.
February 13, 2017 @ 12:43 pm
I don’t know too many married people with kids who pine to live the lives that their bachelor/bachelorette friends. I mostly feel sorry for the people who never grew up.
February 13, 2017 @ 12:57 pm
For my money, Sunny is the best female country artist out there today. This song is about as honest as it gets. Really looking forward to the record.
Oh, and Lori McKenna? She IS on fire. Her last record is 10/10 for sure.
February 13, 2017 @ 4:55 pm
You’re starting out February with some good picks!
February 13, 2017 @ 8:03 pm
I just accidentally ran across this song over the weekend. As many shots as Apple gets (and deserves), their page positioning can still turn me on to good stuff. I had never given Sunny any thought after the Big Machine stuff; I didn’t understand the fuss. But this song is dead-on perfection & now I’m going back to discover her catalog. Hope she will tour outside Texas
February 13, 2017 @ 9:32 pm
This is a very nice song and an excellent review of it. I can definitely hear the Lori McKenna influence in the phrasing and melody of the lyrics. McKenna is a great influence and song writing partner to have right now. Looking forward to the full length album. As someone mentioned above, it is a great couple of years for female singer/songwriters. With a young daughter at home, it’s inspirational to be able to expose her to all these gifted female artists.
February 20, 2017 @ 12:34 pm
I will definitely be buying this album. Songs like this are why I love country music. I saw Sunny open for Lady A a few years ago and bought her last 2 albums. Hope this new one will be a big success for her,
December 27, 2017 @ 4:00 pm
I have only just discovered this artist. I know, I’m a little behind in sunny New Zealand. Love her “But you like country music”.