Songwriters: Sunny Sweeney, Monty Holmes
With the upcoming third single from her new album Concrete, Texas crooner Sunny Sweeney offers a new entry in the hallowed tradition of country music drinking songs. “Drink Myself Single” is a spunky uptempo number bursting with energy, simmering with spite, and packing in more zest than a shot of whiskey.
The song begins with a bouncy drumbeat and guitar hook, and quickly kicks into gear. Bitter lyrics like “I wanna know what it’s like to stagger in the house like you do every night” recall classic George Jones (“You know I still love you, but I still get sore when you come home a-feelin’ for the knob on the door”), while the boot-stomping rhythm would sound right at home on a crowded honky-tonk dance floor. Thus, “Drink Myself Single” gives a reverent nod to tradition while still coming across as a fresh and original offering in its own right. Furthermore, it wisely steers clear of the one-dimensional cliché phrasing that all too often infects the rowdy side of today’s country music, displaying enough wit and cleverness to earn many a repeat playback. The arrangement competently underscores the good-timing vibe, while also sounding crisp and clean and devoid of needless clutter. Thus, Sweeney successfully delivers a country party tune that is actually fun, creative, and interesting, and that actually sounds like country.
The fact that Sweeney broke the Top 10 with “From a Table Away” only to stall outside the Top 30 with “Staying’s Worse Than Leaving” aptly demonstrates the fickle “Airplay today – Gone tomorrow” nature of the music industry. Whether “Drink Myself Single” will steer her back up the charts remains to be seen, but it surely would be a shame to see radio pass on a tune as deliciously irresistible as this.
The 1-to-10 Country Music Review 