Discover Top Posts Tagged with #sunny war

Shout out to Black women in folk music! Gotta be one of my favorite genres.

From left to right, top to down: Sunny War, Joy Oladokun, Lilli Lewis, Rhiannon Giddens, Kaia Kater, Amethyst Kiah, Alison Russell, Leyla McCalla

#folk music #sunny war #joy oladokun #lilli Lewis #rhiannon giddens #Kaia Kater #Amethyst Kiah #Alison Russell #Leyla McCalla #OC

Hey! You there!

Do you want to listen to more small musicians?

Do you just want to take me down a peg by obliterating this score?

You do? Okay yay!

Look at the reblogs for recommendations of artists I love and wish were more popular so they would tour near me because their music is so good!

(“Small” was determined by this poll; the median was 100k-500k, so I went with 500k as the max)

Or, if the links are not working, there is a list below:

Sunny War - Desperate for Love (Acoustic Version)

Currently digging Sunny War, especially her guitar style. Around 1:40 it starts getting really interesting. That's not a sound I hear a lot!

#music #musicposting #musicblr #sunny war #folk punk #musicblogging #Black musicians #cosmo gyres #Youtube

#sunny war #tré burt #scornful heart #armageddon in a summer dress #music

#sunny war #Bandcamp

like 1) one of the great fingerpicking guitarists of the century so far 2) absolutely fascinating beautiful voice 3) honestly really funny. this radio session was in portland during the big ice storm we had in january, and before one of the other songs she was like i was watching tiktoks of people falling trying to walk around in portland and thought it was really funny but then i came here and i feel bad now...it's really hard!

#it was indeed really fucking hard #i'm surprised any shows were happening anywhere. the roads were a nightmare #music #sunny war #Youtube #anyway this song in particular is just so so good

another new fav album, i love u sunny war

#txt #sunny war #music #m #Spotify

Sunny War Album Review: Anarchist Gospel

(New West)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

A breakup. The death of her father. A decaying Earth. Uprooting and moving to her childhood city. On Anarchist Gospel, Sunny War looks change in the face--some unexpected, some sudden, some gradual--and transforms chaos into her best album yet. The singer-songwriter and blues guitar fingerpicker has long channeled struggles, from personal bouts with substance abuse and addiction, to the overall fight against institutional racism and police brutality, into genre-averse songs of pain and triumph. The all-encompassing Anarchist Gospel expounds on this ethos, along with a cast of collaborators including producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Hurray For The Riff Raff), Americana wunderkind Allison Russell, Gillian Welch creative partner David Rawlings, and My Morning Jacket's Jim James. Still, Sunny shines above all.

Take opener "Love's Death Bed", featuring backing vocals from Russell and Chris Pierce's shimmering harmonica, atop clacking drums and banjo. Sunny, who leads a chorus in a call and response, centers the song's dead-eyed stare into the soul of an ex. "Your mouth is a gun / Got bodies dropping every time you speak," she sings, making our jaws drop from the get-go. On "No Reason", a song built around Sunny's incredible desert blues riff and Jack Lawrence's steady bass, she clarifies that even though her ex might not mean to hurt her, it doesn't matter: "Good intentions that you keep / Don't change the fact that you're a beast." Sunny explores intentionality of destruction throughout the album, both in interpersonal relationships and via the environment, asking us to empathize and reflect on the space we take up. On "Shelter And Storm", she sings from the point of view of Earth itself, albeit one that has managed to survive apocalypse, repeatedly and jubilantly declaring, "The humans are away!" Yet, on "Earth", her tone is mournful and more realistic. A stunning combination of blues and jazz, bolstered by the vocal support of James, Maureen Murphy, Nickie Conley, and Kyshona Armstrong, as well as past collaborator Micah Nelson's slinky 12-string, the song reminds us that the end of the world is closer than we think, tangible if you bother to look around.

At the same time, Sunny battles self-destruction throughout Anarchist Gospel; in the lead-up to its release, she spoke about her music representing a battle between that side of herself and the one trying to make things better. On "New Day", she uses the language of addiction to wax on love, hurt, and obsession: "Believing in magic can be tragic / I'm love's junkie, I'm love's addict." One of the record's true standouts is "I Got No Fight", where pained guitars and screaming organs exemplify Sunny's desire for the days to end, depression that buzzes like a fly in her ear. On the gorgeous country tune "His Love", she sings of an unhealthy relationship, "His love fades, my love grows," and the timbres of her voice and the instruments similarly diverge, her lurking deep vocal register contrasting the spryness of the backing vocals, guitars, and pattering drums.

If Anarchist Gospel is anything, it's honest, an album that both bares its teeth and cowers, that sometimes turns inward in the face of trouble but eventually overcomes with boisterous community. On the Crass-quoting, blues stomp clap jaunt of a closer "Whole", Sunny War sings, "Today could be the last, you know / Happy's how you ought to go." Fully knowing it's easier said than done, and for some folks, impossible, Sunny nonetheless dares to dream to everyone.