Sunny War in Concert and Conversation

“Seriously accomplished album, which recalls the power pop of Tom Petty, the introspection of Tracy Chapman and the understated soulfulness of Roberta Flack. Sunny War is a soul voice with a punk heart, a paradox that Armageddon In A Summer Dress nails beautifully” **** – The Times (UK)

When Sunny War (Sydney Ward) moved into her late father’s 100-year-old house in Chattanooga, she believed it was haunted—seeing and hearing things so vividly she slept with a machete by her bed and began writing songs about ghosts. The truth turned out to be a series of severe gas leaks that caused hallucinations, but the emotional disorientation lingered and became the foundation of Armageddon in a Summer Dress. Anchored by the song “Ghosts,” the album meditates on memory, loss, and the blurred boundaries between past and present, self and other. Following her 2022 breakthrough Anarchist Gospel, Sunny spent much of her time touring with artists like Bonnie Raitt and Mitski, and when home, threw herself obsessively into recording demos—playing nearly every instrument herself—in part to stay sober and grounded, and in part to hone her skills as a producer.

That intense, self-contained process pushed Sunny toward a bigger, electric sound designed for a full band, blending punk’s confrontational spirit with the roots and folk traditions she sees as equally anti-establishment. On songs like “One Way Train,” “No One Calls Me Baby,” and “Walking Contradiction”—the latter featuring Crass frontman Steve Ignorant, one of her lifelong heroes—Sunny collapses genre lines and summons the ghosts of alternate selves and lost influences. Armageddon in a Summer Dress reckons with compromise, aging, and injustice, but it’s never resigned: the album ultimately insists on living defiantly, creating freely, and continuing to learn. As Sunny puts it, music is infinite—there’s always another combination to discover, another truth to chase.