Longtime Companion

Longtime Companion is a country record. It’s a break up record. Love and Heartache. Every song was written during and is about his break up with his girlfriend of ten years. The songs came fast and naturally so Smith let the next record be something different, he embellished his Sunsets with members of his country band The Fuckaroos. Recorded to tape in a musty beer stained basement, what transpired was a classic country record. Smith grew up listening to old time music, his dad is a banjo player and his parents and friends played old time music. "It was around the house, but I didn't like it!" recalls Sonny. "My dad played banjo and his friends would come over and play fiddle and mandolin. But I would go watch tv or listen to AC/DC." However, some kind of country strain sank in. Gene Clark, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, a little Johnny Cash, even the countrier side of the Kinks – there are hints of all of these in the new record and yet ultimately it still remains a Sonny & the Sunsets sound through and through.

The third LP from San Francisco garage-poppers came to be after main man Sonny Smith and his girlfriend of a decade parted ways. But where most breakup albums aim for the rawest nerve, Smith keeps a characteristically cool head.

Breakups can do unpredictable things to a guy. For singer-songwriter Sonny Smith, separating from his girlfriend of 10 years led him in a musical direction he’d never gone before. The first time his singing voice appears on Longtime Companion, a second or two into opening track “I Was Born,” it’s striking how…

San Francisco's Sonny Smith returns with his Sunsets, but this time drops the garage-pop in favour of making a country record.

In 2010, San Francisco songwriter Sonny Smith unveiled his 100 Records art installation, a sprawling project in which Smith…

Sonny and the Sunsets 'Longtime Companion' album review on Northern Transmissions. 'Longtime Companion' is now available on Polyvinyl Records