Sunny Sweeney’s Concrete (Big Machine) is a multi-influential combination of vulnerability and swagger. The Texan native started out as a member of a comedy troupe in New York City and along the way was encouraged to embrace singing.

The album is well-stocked with listenable, fun songs revealing Sweeney’s persohality and penchant for dark humor. She’s got the Gretchen Wilson it-is-what-it-is-and-tonight-I-don’t-give-a-damn persona out in full force. Sweeney’s expressive voice has a sweetness that can turn on its heel and take on a weary, jaded edge. On “Drink Myself Single Tonight” she launches into an amusing take on the scorned woman trope, wryly appraising and dissecting the varmint: “I wanna find out what it’s like/ To stagger in the house like you do every night/Sneakin’ into bed like I don’t know the truth/ I wanna find out what it’s like to be you.”

Sweeney has a coolness to her, an understated delivery that can suddenly flare then quickly settles down. Her lyrics are sharp-edged but wrapped in soft packaging, in some ways reminiscent of jazz singer Peggy Lee’s strategy of scaling back her sound in a loud room to make her quietness the focal point. This comes through on “Mean As You” which is a kick in the ass to an unkind lover (a lot of those in country music, have you ever noticed?). Even when most displeased, Sweeney’s aura is streetwise yet somehow pleasantly genteel. She is streetwise, no stranger to those shady characters that seem to be everywhere in country songs. “From A Table Away” is the standard tractor-rollin’over-my-heart torch ballad about the problems that come with loving someone married. A little lightness comes to add some much-needed contrast and dimension to this bad-love heavy CD with the more lighthearted “Fall For Me.” Still, she could manage to sing more songs with less vitriol for the dumbass(es) from the past that mistreated her.

Concrete‘s got some undeniably solid things to offer both vocally and lyrically but on her next go-round Sweeney might want to mix things up a bit more.

If I was mean as you – Sunny Sweeney by jodik945