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24 The Nashville Musician April-June 2007
Sarah: songs, and scrambled eggs
By WALT TROTT
Sarah Buxton, who has mastered the art
of songwriting, also posesses a pretty unique
singing style, currently shining through on her
Top 20 single “That Kind Of Day.”
Meanwhile, her song “Stupid Boy” is a
mega-hit for Keith Urban, and yet another
creation “Never Alone,” as recorded by Jim
Brickman & Lady Antebellum, has just burst
onto the Adult Contemporary chart.
“The coolest thing about that, and I don’t
mean it in crossover terms,” says Sarah, “is
knowing that a song you wrote from the heart
while in your own little world, is being performed
by somebody else and is connecting
with people you don’t even know or wouldn’t
have connected with, if they hadn’t heard the
song by someone else on the radio or the
Internet.”
The perky Lawrence, Kan., performer
boasts a vocal rasp that sets her apart from
other Nashville songbirds, and to these ears
somewhat reminiscent of early Janis Joplin.
While not of that self-destructive variety,
Buxton is equally frank in discussing career
experiences, but tends to shy away from conversation
about her guitar-slinger ex-hubby.
Is her mystery man a songwriter? “Yes.”
Does she withhold his name because he’s famous
and doesn’t want to ride on his coattails?
“Oooh, that’s right, I don’t want to ride
on his coattails (chuckling) . . . No, I don’t
think you would know him. He’s a songwriter
and on a label of his own, but he’s not country.
No, I didn’t learn a lot of my music from
him, though I did take a few guitar lessons off
him, but we weren’t the best student-teacher
combo.”
During WCRS Live!, a songwriters’ panel
discussion during the recent radio seminar, she
alluded to her former husband in explaining
to the audience her scrambled egg experience.
“I was young and we had a big wedding in
Kansas (June 2003), then we moved into a
one-room cabin in Nashville, near the
Cumberland River and 15 feet from the neighborhood
landfill. I went out of my way to
please him, you know like serving him breakfast
in bed every morning. But if his eggs
weren’t cooked right, his day was ruined and
that meant so was mine, so I got real expert at
scrambling eggs. Finally, I came to the realization
that I no longer cared how well his
eggs were scrambled - and that was when we
both knew the marriage was over.”
In our later chat, Sarah admits her marriage
to Christopher Robin (Sylvestro) ended on a
sour note, but today they’re again friends and
mutually respectful. He has performed with
such pros as Greg Allman, Jefferson Starship
and Jessi Colter, but still heads up his own
band here.
It took Sarah some time to put it all behind
her, and it was the encouragement of an old
friend, John Rich (of Big & Rich), who got
her back on the right track. She began networking
and welcomed the chance to co-write
with some of Music Row’s finest, among them
Victoria Shaw, Bob DiPiero, Georgia Middleman
and Craig Wiseman. She says the hardest
thing to get used to when she started get-
Bomshel basks in CRS spotlight
(Continued from page 23)
was a music major out in Idaho, studying opera,
which accounts for her soaring harmonies:
“I’ve been in a steel drum band and play
all different instruments, including mandolin
and acoustic guitar. After I got here, I picked
up again on the fiddle, because it was the instrument
we needed in the show. I love country
music and it’s been a wonderful experience.”
In their show, she has wowed crowds with
her energetic playing, and for a recent encore
- performing “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”
- Kristy jumped on the shoulders of an
onstage hulk and continued playing without
missing a beat, while he carried her down into
an audience that went wild. Quite an encore.
On their first CD, due out soon, one
ting success was actually having money, after
those years of hardship.
Although Sarah has an album in the can,
her label Lyric Street Records won’t release it
until summer: “You see that’s where art and
commerce meet. It doesn’t always make sense.
You’d think if the record’s done, it ought to
come out, right? But, I guess they figure if
people don’t know who I am, then they won’t
go out and buy it. So they’re hoping the single
I have out now - a funny little song called ‘That
Kind of Day’ - may make it into the Top 10,
then that’ll be the proof or something, and
people might go buy it.”
Unfortunately, Sarah’s debut single “Innocence,”
released late last year, didn’t make the
grade, tanking at “maybe something like the
lower 20s, about #21 or #22, that’s as far as it
went. When it got into Christmas time, I was
like OK, that’s fine, let’s move on to the next
one.”
The album, co-produced by Dann Huff and
Sarah’s co-writing partner Wiseman, contains
10 tunes co-written by her and one that’s given
her lots of exposure (co-written by Craig and
Lee Miller) - “Love Is a Trip,” - on ABC-TV,
where it ran as a clip plugging Anne Heche’s
fall series Men in Trees.
“Yeah, that’s me you hear singing, if you
don’t turn away.”
How did she land Craig and Dann to coproduce?
“Craig and I co-wrote such songs as ‘Crazy
Dream,’ ‘Cowboys’ and ‘Full-Grown Woman,’
all on this album,” says Buxton. “Well, he and
Dann both have publishing offices in the same
building, so Craig was the guy who introduced
me to Dann. That turned out great.”
Huff co-produced Urban’s “Stupid Boy,”
Rascal Flatts’ “Stand” and Kenny Rogers’
“Calling Me” (featuring the Eagles’ Don
Henley), all current chartings.
Speaking of Rogers, among Sarah’s session
chores was providing backup vocals for Kenny
on his “Water and Bridges” album, Radney
(Continued on page 25)
- Patricia Presley photo
Sarah Buxton sings during CRS.
number’s not so upbeat.
“It’s called ‘The One That Got Away’ and
it’s my favorite on the album that I’ve been a
part of (co-writing),” says Buffy. “It’s about a
little woman in a nursing home, where there’s
a volunteer who comes in, helps her out and
spends time with her.
“Well, the woman shares a secret with her
that she really had the love of her life, someone
who her husband never knew about. You
don’t know in the song whether she had an
affair or if it was her first love. It never really
reveals itself, but she went through her whole
life really secretly in love with somebody that
no one ever knew about. What’s interesting to
me is that among our fans, I’ve seen men, I
mean big, tall, macho football player types, cry
when they hear the song. I wish every song
that I have sung brought me the same honesty
and the depth to it that this song has. Honestly.”
Singer scores a
major label coup
By WALT TROTT
Sunny Sweeney, a fresh new face on the
country scene, brings a contemporary touch to
her Texas “rockin’ honky tonk” tunes, while
radiating amazing star quality.
Although an Austin artist, Sweeney was
born in Houston, raised in the East Texas town
of Longview, and is now taking Nashville by
storm.
Last year, Sunny was voted the Academy
of Western Artists’ DisCovery Award as most
promising new face on Texas’ Western swing
horizon, remarkable for someone who only
began playing guitar and writing, a little over
three years ago.
Music Row’s Scott Borchetta not only
signed the blue-eyed, blonde belter to a label
contract with Big Machine Records, but took
her indie CD “Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame”
as is, licensing it to release as Sunny’s introductory
album.
“You know today is Merle Haggard’s 70th
birthday!,” exclaims Sweeney, as we began our
interview (April 6). “Better believe that we’re
gonna celebrate . . . Happy Merle Day!”
Needless to say, The Hag’s her number one
music hero.
“I met him finally on Feb. 5,” she adds.
“Both he and Loretta Lynn are my biggest
singer-songwriter heroes, and they’re real
country. I hope that this comes across in my
music.”
No need for worry, Sunny’s worlds away
from the slicker, commercial sounds of Shania,
Faith or Carrie.
Upon learning that Sweeney had dabbled
in both theater and stand-up comedy, we ask:
“Are you putting us all on with this ‘honky
tonk angel’ bit?”
“Whaaat? Of course not. I’m really into
country music. You know on March 2, I made
my Grand Ole Opry debut, and I just cried like
a baby. It’s one of those things, I would never
take it back, I mean, I cried while I was singing
- and I didn’t even care. Little Jimmy
Dickens introduced me. Isn’t that awesome?”
Before going to New York City to “hang
out awhile” folowing graduation, Sweeney
started taking some acting classes in Austin,
which got her involved in theater.
“I just thought that would be a fun thing to
do, and it eventually led to my music career.
One of the guys I worked with at the (dinnertheater)
restaurant was into stand-up comedy
and he says, ‘Sunny, I think you should try
comedy.’ I said, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’
And he said, ‘I can teach you.’ So he taught
me the basics and even got me a couple of gigs.
“I think fairly fast and it’s a fast-thinking
art. I like being on stage anyway. Actually, the
more people that attend, the better it works out
for me, as I feed off an audience. I really prefer
improv (comedy) over stand-up, because
there’s people on stage with you that you can
interact with.”
So what was the connection to pickin’ and
singin’?
“That all happened about three-and-a-half
years ago. First of all, my dad wanted to teach
me guitar, but I thought it was for dorks. Then
when I was in comedy in Austin, one of my
mentors said during a skit, ‘You need to try to
be a singer.’ I told him I didn’t know how to
do that, and he said, ‘Just learn an instrument
and start a band.’ Well I said it’s not that easy,
but he said, ‘Sure it is.’
“Then I called my stepdad (Paul) and told
him. He said, ‘Do you want me to teach you?’
I said sure. Well he taught me three country
chords: G, C and D . . . Then he was sort of
like, ‘I told you so,’ and it just kind of evolved
from there, and I love it. Once I learned to
play, I started writing songs and that’s when I
really got into Loretta Lynn, who wrote and
sang.”
Once she formed her band, Sunny booked
their first real gig in September 2004 at
Austin's Carousel Lounge: “I have busted my
(butt) doing this . . . The crowd at home started
coming pretty steadily after four or five
months, but those first months were the longest
months I've ever had. I booked myself on
like over 200 shows the first year I had a
band.”
Does she incorporate comedy into her
country concerts?
“I certainly do. A lot depends on the
venue. When I play those little honky tonk
bars, the kind of clientel you get in there lends
itself to comedy. Do I script them? No, I kind
of make my jokes up as I go, which sometimes
causes me to put my foot in my mouth.”
Sunny says on occasion she’s been told
that her vocals are reminiscent of a young
Kitty Wells, country’s first female superstar:
“I say, ‘Are you kidding me?’ Why I love Kitty
so much, aside from her voice, is that she had
it all together. She’s a singer, a wife and a
mom, and she had it all in a row. I love Kitty,
Loretta, Tammy and others like them, and
when you listen to their stuff, I guess it can
not help but come across later in your performance,
but that doesn’t set us down exactly
like them. I hope the music that I write does
that, too, simply suggests their influences. It’s
extremely complimentary.”
What brought Sunny to Scott’s attention?
“Well I heard he got a copy of my CD on
his desk, listened to it, then e-mailed me on
MySpace to say he liked my album. That
started us talking.”
Positive word-of-mouth from MySpace
members and various Internet bloggers have
helped to solidify her standing among country
radio fans. Sunny agrees it really says
something about the power of the Internet:
“Oh yes, it’s just incredible. I’m a big advocate
of MySpace.”
Yet another industry veteran now in
Sunny’s corner is producer-promoter-historian
John Lomax III.
“There’s a company (in Austin) that sends
CDs overseas and we buy CDs from them,”
recalls Sweeney. “Well, the girl that works
there gave him my CD and we sort of connected
through e-mails and on the phone. Then
I just randomly met him when I was up in
Nashville one time. He kinda started helping
me and a couple months into it, John said, ‘I’d
really like to get back into management, if
you’re up to that.’ He’s a terrific guy and I
must say he’s never steered me the wrong
way.”
So let’s talk a bit about the acclaimed
“Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame” album Big
Machine just re-released, and her co-producers
Tommy Detamore and Tom Lewis.
“Oh, that’s Tom-Tom productions (Ha!
Ha!). Actually, we had an original producer
and that didn’t really work for me. ‘We can
do this,’ they said, and I said OK. Then they
took up the reins. I knew what I wanted to
sound like, though I didn’t really know as a
producer what I was doing. So we took it from
there and it turned out exactly like I wanted it
to sound.”
There are three Sweeney originals on the
set, the title track, “Ten Years Pass” and “Slow,
Swinging Western Tunes,” and are these biographical?
“Oh yeah. Even if I didn’t write them they
were. I picked those songs for a reason. All
the ones I wrote are definitely about me. One’s
about my dad, another’s about my hometown
and the other’s about an ex-boyfriend. Ones I
didn’t write matched something I felt in my
life. Even though I write, I don’t need to have
a record full of my songs. I’ve always said a
good cover song is better than a bad original.”