The pandemic was hard. But Sunny War is making her best roots music ever
KURATED NO. 175
NEW RELEASE / BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Anarchist Gospel by Sunny War
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CONTENTS
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 Sunny War‘s seventh album is winning a lot of positive attention (Joshua Black Wilkins photo)

SUNNY’S WINNING THE WAR

The pandemic was hard. But Sunny War is making her best roots music ever

“I am practicing my own therapy once again: words and music,” Sunny War writes in the February issue of music magazine No Depression. In her short essay she’s candid about what shaped her strong new album Anarchist Gospel: how the pandemic helped end a six-year relationship, recurring struggles with alcohol, unstable housing, the sudden death of her father and – critically – the, insights and songs born from these troubles.

About the therapy: “(I’m)…trying to do it militantly this time around. Not because I want to, but because I have to. My songs are the only consistency I’ve ever had in my life. Partners, locations, friends, and even family are not promised to any of us tomorrow…. Songs are all I have left and my only chance at sobriety. I have to write whether things are going good or bad. I’ve got to polish turds, make lemons lemonade.”

Born Sydney Lyndella Ward, the 32 year-old musician’s stage name holds a contradiction, one which partly reflects the struggles and victories of her life and music. Growing up she followed her nomadic single mother to various US cities. At 16, feeling she was a burden, War moved to Los Angeles on her own immersing herself in the punk scene, drugs and addiction and, ultimately, rehab. Hard living begat her terse and unflinching lyrics. Yet she delivers them firmly with warmth – sometimes an ache – wrapped in a bluesy-gospel style.

Despite those early chaotic years, War credits her mother who “bought me my first guitar when I was 7 years old and was always supportive of my artistic journey. I took piano, dance, harmonica and drumming classes as a child”.

It paid off. Over the years of busking, jumping trains, gigging, squatting, political activism and independently issuing albums, War developed musical chops which feature a unique fingerpicking style and affecting vocals.

“Her voice is like an open wound,” says Moira Smiley of singing group VOCO, “as if she has a physical need to sing.”

Anarchist Gospel is her seventh recording and is winning positive reviews. Rolling Stone magazine raves: “Taken as a whole, Anarchist Gospel is a powerful statement from a singer-songwriter poised to become one of the year’s most vital voices in roots music.

“War has always drawn from a number of traditions (Eighties hardcore, Delta Blues, Seventies singer-songwriter, folk busking). But never before have all those styles sounded more seamlessly integrated … On the collection, War synthesizes those genres into her very own distinct sound, from the murky swamp grooves (Swear to Gawd), warm country devotionals (His Love), and textured, hand-clapped electric blues (Shelter And Storm).”

And while the pandemic was hard on War there’s redemption in finding resonance with musical soulmates on her move back to Nashville and signing with a major label, New West.

Producer Andrija Tokic, who has worked with Alabama Shakes and Hurry for the Riff Raff, wins acclaim for “both streamlining and opening up War’s music without sacrificing her eccentricities,” says Pitchfork magazine. Contributing on select songs are award-winning singer-songwriter Allison Russell, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Gillian Welch collaborator Dave Rawlings, Micah Nelson (Particle Kid and Willie Nelson’s son), and War’s partner in the duo War & Pierce, Chris Pierce.

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A unique fingerpicking style

Sunny War started learning guitar from an uncle at age 7 and ultimately adopted fingerpicking – rather than strumming – as her preferred way of playing using only her thumb and index finger.

Michael Simmons from the L.A. Weekly describes it like this: “…her right thumb plunks the bass part while her forefinger upstrokes notes and chords, leaving the other three fingers unused. A banjo technique, it’s also used by acoustic blues guitarists. Her fingers are long and strong – Robert Johnson hands – in jarring contrast to the waif they’re attached to. The walking bass line sounds like a hammer striking piano keys in perfect meter, while the fills are dynamic flurries – like cluster bombs. I haven’t heard a young guitarist this dexterous and ass-kicking in eons.”

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Three fingers rest by the sound hole on the guitar body to free up her thumb and index finger

REVIEW QUOTES

Anarchistic Gospel is being hailed as a breakthrough LP. For those of you who follow Metacritic, the album has earned a very respectable 82 points from eight reviews in high profile publications.

MOJO
Despite its unruly title, Anarchist Gospel takes all the splits and divisions, the churn and the confusion, and turns them into something remarkably centred and complete, the work of a songwriter who knows who she is and how she got there.

NO DEPRESSION
With her new album, Anarchist Gospel, talented singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sunny War continues to acknowledge the effects of anxiety, grief, and social alienation while accessing a notable equanimity. The album stands as a testament to life’s hardships and a declaration of triumph.

POPMATTERS
Anarchist Gospel is a testament to clear-eyed persistence and gritty hope over fantasies of easy resolutions. In the closing number, “Whole”, War reminds her listeners, “Today could be the last you know / Happy’s how you oughtta go.” The importance of the moment and the careful precision her distinctive guitar playing and vocals bring to this project center Sunny War as one of the most promising and exciting voices in American roots music. 

ROLLING STONE
War is an economical songwriter, telling vivid stories in snappy, sub-three minute songs, but her writing feels more focused and pronounced than ever this time around: “Will I survive the war inside my head?” she sings in the opening line of “I Got No Fight,” setting up a universe of anguish and alienation with eight quick words. Elsewhere on, “Swear To Gawd,” (co-written with singer-songwriter Chris Pierce) she offers some a masterful character study in her portrait of a parent unable to wrestle control of unruly teenagers. 

Taken as a whole, Anarchist Gospel is a powerful statement from a singer-songwriter poised to become one of the year’s most vital voices in roots music.

PITCHFORK
Always an empathetic vocalist, War sometimes seemed a shade too earnest on her earlier records, hitting each emotion squarely on the nose. Here, she alternates between wry reticence and bruised confession, qualities that are enhanced by Tokic’s subtly shifting, textured production. The wider canvas and broadened palette reveal the complex human emotions within War’s music, resulting in a breakup record that’s emotionally resonant and curiously hopeful.

npr.org
Watching Sunny War‘s guitar playing is so good, so effortlessly good, that it’s generally the first thing you notice on her records. The Nashville, by way of Los Angeles, singer and virtuoso guitarist experimented with punk and folk music for the last decade, often to dazzling results. On her latest album, other instruments and vocalists play a larger role — and make Anarchist Gospel her most compelling album yet.

I caught up with Sunny on the album’s release day to talk about the evolution in her sound thanks, in part, to an unemployment check during the pandemic, the differences between the music scene of Los Angeles and Nashville, and her work with nonprofit group Food not Bombs. Our session kicks off with a performance of “No Reason” from the stage of World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.

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8 April 2023

PLAYLISTS
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