Sunny Sweeney

Hailing from Longview, Sunny Sweeney is exactly the kind of old-school country singer that gives Texas its good reputation. Possessing a booming voice with just the right amount of drawl, Sweeney delivers backwoods passion in spades on Heartbreaker's Hall of Fame, her sturdy debut. Besides clever and poignant original tunes such as "10 Years Pass" and "Slow Singing Western Tunes," Sweeney covers songs by such classic purveyors of Americana as Jim Lauderdale, Iris Dement and Keith Sykes. Best of all, even though she has the superficial glitz of Shania Twain, she avoids the slick country-pop coming out of Nashville these days. Rarely do beauty, brains and brawn co-exist so organically as they do in Sunny Sweeney. Her brand of tough love might be the long-sought antidote for the vapid excesses that continue to infest mainstream country.