Hear Sunny Sweeney’s Boozy ‘One More Christmas Beer’
Well, the holidays are upon us and if television and your sweet aunt are to be believed, the next month or so will be filled with nothing but joyful family bliss. But Sunny Sweeney knows better.
With “One More Christmas Beer,” the clever Texan troubadour shines a boozy, brawling light on what family get-togethers are really like for about 99 percent of the Christmas-celebrating world. And even though the scene of mayhem she describes isn’t pretty, it is filled with love, plus a loping beat straight out of the Lone Star State.
“This song was inspired by true family events, and names haven’t been changed to protect the non-innocent,” Sweeney tells Rolling Stone Country. “My family puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Sometimes you have to just drink your way through a family gathering.”
Ditching sleigh bells in favor of slippery steel and a fuzzed out, chicken-picked lead guitar, Sweeney’s tune captures the half-drunk, “why am I here?” feeling of an extended-family disaster perfectly. And her description puts the listener right in the middle of the action: there are nephews wrestling on the floor, cousins arguing violently about NASCAR and grandma making awkward complaints about men within earshot of grandpa. And all the while, the drinks are flowing freely.
“I think that a lot of people can relate to this,” Sweeney says. “Because I think that most everyone has a little bit of crazy looming over their heads during the holidays. . . or in my case, all year round.”
Co-written by Sweeney with her friends Monty Holmes and Buddy Owens, “One More Christmas Beer” has been around in some form since at least 2011, but on Thursday, December 1st, it will be available on iTunes for the very first time. And after that, Sweeney will take her hiccupping holiday masterpiece on the road for the Hard Candy Christmas tour, spreading cheer and beer all across the middle of the country.
Check out the festive song below, along with a complete rundown of Sunny Sweeney’s Hard Candy Christmas tour dates:
- December 6 – Tomball, Texas @ Mainstreet Crossing
- December 7 – San Antonio, Texas @ Sam’s Burger Joint
- December 9 – Austin, Texas @ Saxon Pub
- December 10 – Tulsa, Oklahoma @ Blackbird On Pearl
- December 11 – Wichita, Kansas @ The Port Of Wichita
- December 12 – Springfield, Missouri @ Outland Ballroom
- December 13 – St. Louis, Missouri @ Off Broadway
- December 14 – Chicago, Illinois @ Joe’s Bar
- December 15 – Minneapolis, Minnesota @ Hook and Ladder
- December 16 – Waterloo, Nebraska @ Buck’s Bar
- December 17 – Kansas City, Missouri @ Knuckleheads
- December 18 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma @ Blue Door