Sunny War is an Americana singer/songwriter based in Chattanooga, Tennessee with a punk edge, and her upcoming album features two punk legends, Steve Ignorant of Crass and John Doe of X. She’s the finger-picking blueswoman whose life was changed by the punk band Crass – and went viral for busking while homeless. She talks about ghosts, her ‘smelly’ childhood and fighting the far right.
Sunny War delivers another stunning album of punk folk and blues with a full band and guest musicians of old school punks. Seeing her on the streets of LA and seeing where she is now is testament to her strength and belief. She could have faded away – people would see the video and wonder what happened to that bad ass guitar playing homeless girl and probably determined that her talent had been subsumed by drugs and drink. But she became more than that. More than a cliché. She rose above. She inspires.
“Ghosts”, an exploration of her father’s death and its aftermath, appears on her new album, “Armageddon in a Summer Dress”. It is a fantastic record, more evidence of a song writing talent who has attracted the attention of Willie Nelson (who covered her song “If It Wasn’t Broken” on his last album) and Mitski, who invited War to support her most recent New York shows. It deals in Americana deeply rooted in blues – War is a devotee of Elizabeth Cotten, whose song “Freight Train” became a skiffle-era standard, and plays guitar with a distinctive “crab claw” finger-picking style more commonly used on a banjo – but also displays her longstanding love for anarcho-punk.
“Everybody I love is punk,” she shrugs. “As a kid, those are the only people that would be friends with me, because maybe I was a little bit smelly and I had a drinking problem.”
Once a member of a punk duo with the spectacular name the Anus Kings, War has old Discharge and Multi-Death Corporations posters on the wall of her home; she is frequently seen sporting Rudimentary Peni and Conflict T-shirts. The lyrics on “Armageddon in a Summer Dress” cover everything from romance to the urge to switch off from the incessant news cycle. There are definitely moments when they sound remarkably like the barked contents of a 7in punk single: “Sucking dick for a dollar’s not the only way to ho / We sell labour, we sell hours, sell our power, sell our souls.” Even her stage name makes her sound like a member of a punk band – her real name is Sydney Ward
Signed to a local label and then to the longstanding Americana institution New West – home to Steve Earle, Drive-By Truckers and Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett’s the Coward Brothers. Her breakthrough came with 2023’s “Anarchist Gospel”, which featured contributions from alt-country royalty David Rawlings. The years of busking prepared her for touring life. “I don’t have a lot of fear that some other performers have, because all the craziest shit that could happen while you’re playing has already happened to me,” she says. “I’ve had gangs of teenagers heckle me. I’ve had a crackhead steal all of my tips out of my guitar case and run away. And I pay a lot of attention to how people react to songs, because as a busker you’re always trying to figure it out: oh, people tip really good if you play this.”
The album also features appearances by Valerie June, Tré Burt, Jack Lawrence of the Raconteurs, Kyshona Armstrong, John James Tourville of The Deslondes, and more. The songs with Steve Ignorant and Tré Burt are out now, and both are great.
The Fat Angel Sings 