SUNNY OZELL Releases Video For Her Version Of Los Lobos’ “The Valley” Track From Her New EP
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SUNNY OZELL ‘Live At The Village’ Acoustic EP Due Out July 17
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DATE: JUNE 15, 2020
FROM: MARCEE RONDAN
 SUNNY OZELL
‘LIVE AT THE VILLAGE’
ACOUSTIC EP
DUE OUT JULY 17
LISTEN HERE
Singer-songwriter SUNNY OZELL has announced the release of a new acoustic EP, LIVE AT THE VILLAGE, due out July 17. It is comprised of four songs lifted from her OVERNIGHT LOWS album (released earlier this year), along with a personally poignant cover of Los Lobos‘ “The Valley.” The EP was recorded live at the historic Village Studios in Los Angeles and features raw and affecting versions of the songs. Listen to the EP here.
The tracks on LIVE AT THE VILLAGE all hold a very meaningful sense of place both geographically and spiritually, with “Driving Highways” referencing the landscape of SUNNY‘s home state of Nevada, the English countryside of “The Garden,” to the transience of travel and memory in “Comes And It Goes.” The first single from the EP, “Hammer And Nail,” takes its title and meaning from the Staples Singers song of the same name. The most overtly political song SUNNY has released, the track is an acknowledgement that change will “…take more than a hammer and nail/to keep the peace and finally tip the scales,” and instead emphasises the importance of change from a local level. Much like SUNNY‘s earthy, soulful sound, it is very much a ground-up approach.
“When I’d finished making OVERNIGHT LOWS, I’d thought I was done probing these particular songs,” SUNNY says of the LIVE AT THE VILLAGE EP. “But in taking another swing at some of my already completed tunes I was reminded that we’re never really ‘done,’ and that it can be a total pleasure to keep exploring and expanding. It was such a joy to return to The Village recording studios in Santa Monica late last summer to track some acoustic versions of a select group of my songs. I’d thought I would come away with some stripped down ‘coffee house’ kinda takes on the material; ‘acoustic’ has often meant to me ‘soft’ or ‘delicate.’ But what these two days of tracking produced was something of a surprise: genuine re-imaginings of the songs themselves, albeit performed with all-acoustic instrumentation.”
Live At The Village tracklisting:
Recently, SUNNY intertwined her love of music with her love of medieval history and architecture, with a hugely popular series of videos in which she explores three churches close to her heart in Oxfordshire, while performing songs in them. Watch the Church Sessions series here: https://sunnyozell.lnk.to/TheChurchSessions
SUNNY’s OVERNIGHT LOWS (released earlier this year) gleams with engaging melodies and intelligent wordplay performed with a sophisticated fluency in pop, jazz, soul and Americana dialects. In SUNNY‘s words, OVERNIGHT LOWS reflects the soul and simplicity of her passion for such inspirations as Bonnie Raitt, David Byrne, Cassandra Wilson, and Aretha Franklin. Players on the album include Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant, Aimee Mann, Alison Krauss), Tyler Chester (George Ezra, Maddison Cunningham), Andy Hess (The Black Crowes, David Byrne), Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Roseanne Cash), and Rich Hinman (Sara Bareilles). The album was recorded at Village Studios in Los Angeles, and engineered by Mike Piersante. “All That I Am,” the album’s first single, debuted earlier this year at AMERICAN SONGWRITER.
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SUNNY OZELL Releases “Not Afraid,” Latest Single From Her ‘Overnight Lows’ Album
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FROM: MARCEE RONDAN
RELEASES “NOT AFRAID,” LATEST SINGLE FROM HER ‘OVERNIGHT LOWS’ ALBUM WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
Singer-songwriter SUNNY OZELL has announced the release of her brand-new single and video for “Not Afraid,” from her recently released second album OVERNIGHT LOWS. Watch the clip here.
The aptly titled new track–marked by its defiant sentiment in the unprecedented situation the world presently finds itself in–espouses a powerful message amidst isolation, fear and the different types of thoughts that creep up and plague us all with worry when we can’t sleep. SUNNY‘s strong personality permeates stand-out production, resolute groove and message of boldness. “Not Afraid” follows the album’s last single “All That I Am,” which debuted earlier this year at AMERICAN SONGWRITER; the video for that track has already garnered more than half a million views.
“I put my record OVERNIGHT LOWS out on February 28 and I had a lot of things ‘on the books’ to promote this album that I’m so fucking proud of,” SUNNY says. “But the planet, or rather, a sub-microscopic pathogen, had other plans.”
“In very short order, the things that truly matter have come into very sharp focus: love, safety, family and friends. I wish health to you and everyone you hold dear. I thought it might be a good time to share ‘Not Afraid,’ another single from my record…it’s appropriately ominous, but triumphant all the same.”
This past weekend, SUNNY was featured, alongside her husband Sir Patrick Stewart, on CBS’ “Sunday Morning.” SUNNY also recently shared her “Church Sessions,” three videos that were filmed at centuries-old churches throughout the UK earlier this year. The clips merge her love of music, history, and travel. Watch the clips here. Next up is a new release, details of which will be announced in the coming weeks.
OVERNIGHT LOWS gleams with engaging melodies and intelligent wordplay
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SUNNY OZELL Debuts “Church Sessions” Video Series And Catches Up With Graham Norton From Los Angeles Quarantine
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DATE: APRIL 23, 2020
FROM: MARCEE RONDAN
 SINGER-SONGWRITER
SUNNY OZELL
DEBUTS “CHURCH SESSIONS”
VIDEO SERIES, MERGING HER
LOVE OF MUSIC, HISTORY AND TRAVEL
FIRST VIDEO FOR ALBUM’S
“DOWNSTREAM” TRACK OUT NOW
WATCH HERE
SUNNY CATCHES UP WITH GRAHAM NORTON
FROM LOS ANGELES QUARANTINE
WATCH HERE
In advance of the release of her next single from her album OVERNIGHT LOWS , singer-songwriter SUNNY OZELL has shared the first in a series of video shorts that merge her love of music, history, and travel. Titled the “Church Sessions,” the three videos were filmed at centuries-old churches throughout the UK early this year. With the recent shelter at home global lockdown, SUNNY is currently planted firmly in Los Angeles, where she and her husband were recently featured on Graham Norton’s UK show. Watch a clip here.
For the first video (out now) in the “Church Sessions” series, SUNNY gives us a virtual tour of Saint Mary’s church in Bloxham, West Oxdfordshire. SUNNY offers a brief history lesson along with an acoustic performance of “Downstream” from her OVERNIGHT LOWS album, live in the soaring nave of an ancient house of worship. Watch the clip here.
“Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved old buildings,” SUNNY explains. “Though growing up on the West Coast didn’t afford for much in the way of ‘old,’ Virginia City (a Nevada silver ‘boom town’ from the late 19th century) was about as old as anything I’d seen. So, when I first started spending regular amounts of time in the UK, I relished the wealth of centuries-old historical buildings and dove headlong into studying them. In particular, the church architecture of ancient England swept me off my feet.
“I’m not remotely a religious person, but these houses of worship, where parishioners have gathered and marked their lives for hundreds and hundreds of years, hold so many treasures to be discovered. All the applied arts of the medieval era can be found in fragments here and there, and I’m especially interested in the bits that survived the sweeping destructions of the Reformation. Studying history is a pastime I find immensely calming; it is an escapist pursuit, but it also brings comfort when you find that fellow human beings from centuries past wanted the same things we do–love, freedom, selfhood, etc. When I connect with medieval church buildings, I’m also connecting with the human lives who have come and gone through the doors. It seemed perfectly sensible to bridge two of my passions–music and history–in these short videos. Americana songs and medieval ecclesiastical architecture may seem a strange marriage, but they both act as ‘records’ of human life and it was truly a delight to sing in these majestic spaces.”
OVERNIGHT LOWS gleams with engaging melodies and intelligent wordplays, performed with a sophisticated fluency in pop, jazz, soul and Americana dialects. In SUNNY‘s words, OVERNIGHT LOWSreflects the soul and simplicity of her passion for such inspirations as Bonnie Raitt, David Byrne, Cassandra Wilson, and Aretha Franklin. Players on the album include Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant, Aimee Mann, Alison Krauss), Tyler Chester (George Ezra, Maddison Cunningham), Andy Hess (The Black Crowes, David Byrne), Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Roseanne Cash), and Rich Hinman (Sara Bareilles). The album was recorded at Village Studios in Los Angeles, and engineered by Mike Piersante.
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SUNNY OZELL’S “Overnight Lows” Due Out February 28; Single Premiered At ‘American Songwriter’
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DATE: FEBRUARY 24, 2020
FROM: MARCEE RONDAN
 SUNNY OZELL’S
‘OVERNIGHT LOWS’
DUE OUT FEBRUARY 28
VIDEO FOR “ALL THAT I AM” PREMIERED
AT ‘AMERICAN SONGWRITER‘
SONG IS LATEST TRACK FROM TRANSATLANTIC AMERICANA
SINGER-SONGWRITER’S SECOND ALBUM
SHOWS SET IN NEW YORK FEBRUARY 28
AND LOS ANGELES TUESDAY, MARCH 10
TO CELEBRATE ALBUM’S RELEASE
With her second album due out this Friday (February 28), singer-songwriter SUNNY OZELL last week premiered the “All That I Am” video at AMERICAN SONGWRITER. The song is the new track from OVERNIGHT LOWS, an album that gleams with engaging melodies and intelligent wordplays, performed with a sophisticated fluency in pop, jazz, soul and Americana dialects.
To celebrate the album’s release, SUNNY has confirmed shows in New York and Los Angeles. First up is a NYC show the day (Saturday, February 29) after the album’s release at Rockwood Music Hall. A few weeks later, she’ll play a Tuesday, March 10 show at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood.
Describing the album title, OZELL says, “OVERNIGHT LOWS came to me more or less before I’d composed a single complete lyric, and I knew it was perfect. It encapsulated so many possibilities of what I’d hoped to say, and it steered the writing process that followed. The title was a kind of lighthouse, guiding the way.”
In her words, OVERNIGHT LOWS reflects the soul and simplicity of her passion for such inspirations as Bonnie Raitt, David Byrne, Cassandra Wilson, and Aretha Franklin. Players on the album include Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant, Aimee Mann, Alison Krauss), Tyler Chester (George Ezra, Maddison Cunningham), Andy Hess (The Black Crowes, David Byrne), Adam Levy (Norah Jones, Roseanne Cash), and Rich Hinman (Sara Bareilles). The album was recorded at Village Studios in Los Angeles, and engineered by Mike Piersante.
OVERNIGHT LOWS displays SUNNY‘s love of language and her intimate, soulful delivery, from the cruising feel of “Driving Highways” at one end–with its clever incorporation of a key line from Dobie Gray’s 1970s soulful singalong “Drift Away”–to the bluesy, smoochy “Take You Down” at the other. “Almost like self-analysis,” she adds, “I went back through it and thought ‘Holy shit, there’s a lot about night in here, and not sleeping, and wrestling with memories.”
As personal as these songs are, OZELL is perfectly happy for them to assume their own individual meaning to the listener. “I was really ready to be reflective, but I don’t necessarily need to have my agenda known,” she says. “I know from every song that’s ever moved me that when you love something at first glance, but it continues to yield up deeper levels of meaning as time goes on, that’s really art.”
OVERNIGHT LOWS is fueled by a lifetime relationship with music that started when SUNNY began violin lessons at the age of four and singing lessons at 11 years old. Stints in opera companies in her teens led to nights in a blues band in college, followed by jazz clubs in New York City. It was her time there, in New York, that honed and refined her unique voice and vision.
The OVERNIGHT LOWS tracklisting is as follows:
Driving Highways
Comes And It Goes
All That I Am
In The Sun
Not Afraid
Saint Ursula
The Garden
Hammer And Nail
Downstream
Take You Down
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