Sunny War
Blues/Folk/Punk guitarist Sydney Ward, AKA Sunny War War is originally from Nashville, Tennessee, and for the last seven years she has been based in Los Angeles, CA. Sunny War has received much attention from various notables for her music. In February 2011Sunny War signed with Monterey International Booking Agency and she had opened for Booker T Jones, Madeleine Peyroux, JJ Grey, Mindy Smith, The Levon Helm Band, Eliza Gilkyson & Nagite Agindotan.
By the age of 13, Sunny taught herself to play guitar and began to write her own original songs. She credits her mother’s boyfriends for introducing her to the blues. Once that fire to create sparked, there was no turning back. Eventually, Sunny decided California would be a good place to try to set down some kind of roots and get her music heard. She found herself living and performing on the streets of San Francisco and San Diego.
“…her right thumb plunks the bass part while her forefinger upstrokes notes and chords, leaving the other three fingers unused. A banjo technique, it’s also used by acoustic blues guitarists. Her fingers are long and strong – Robert Johnson hands – in jarring contrast to the waif they’re attached to. The walking bass line sounds like a hammer striking piano keys in perfect meter, while the fills are dynamic flurries – like cluster bombs. I haven’t heard a young guitarist this dexterous and ass-kicking in eons.” Michael Simmons- L.A Weekly
Quotes by TheCountryBlues.com
“…There are some musicians who shake up the comfort level of the traditional white, aging blues fans, and that may well be the draw needed to reignite interest among the 20 somethings. One of them is Sunny War, born Sydney Lyndella Ward, up until recently a street busker. She expresses not only heavy thematics of social criticism, but she sings critically about the system and culture which many of the old-school blues fans are so happily part of.”
“She is anti-establishment, and that includes the blues music establishment, and that might be just a bit heavy for some of the stoic old crowd. She is personally shy and reserved, but unreserved with her radical politics and her brash, in-your-face expressiveness and strong artistry. This is not your grandma’s blues….”
