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Apr 27, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Florencia P. Marano

Sunny War has already lived lifetimes; the evidence of it is all over her world-weary music. Reviving folk and blues traditions for the 21st Century, Sunny War has already built a cult following of self-released independent works, culminating in her 2018 and 2019 breakout records, With The Sun and Shell Of A Girl. For her newest record, Simple Syrup, Sunny pulled back into loose, sun-lit folk, capturing the vibrant feel of her live performances. “I want Simple Syrup to be an album of refuge,” she explains. “An album you can listen to when you want to get away.”

Following the release of the record last month Sunny is now back, sharing a video for one of the album’s standouts, “Losing Hand,” premiering with Under the Radar.

Replete with dextrous acoustic licks, bluesy vocals, and quietly powerful lyricism, “Losing Hand’’ encapsulates all of what makes Sunny War so instantly affecting. She wears her pain on her sleeve, exorcising it with blues poetics and her trademark fingerpicked stylings. “I ain’t no doctor but know a little bit about getting well/Took my veins and made em softer/Til I saw the tar pits down in hell,” she confesses. “Ain’t got no man ain’t got no baby/Well just maybe I’ve been dealt that losing hand.” As she delivers the last lines of the chorus, a swelling cello part rises to meet her, offering a climactic emotional release to the song’s winding melodies and soul-baring lyrics. It’s an entrancing contrasting mix of downcast writing and honeyed melodies, beautifully bringing to life Sunny’s hard-fought journey.

Sunny War says of the track, “Losing Hand is about my personal struggles in life and things I’m trying to overcome. I reference having no education, being broke, and being an addict in the song. In the chorus I say “ain’t got no man/ ain’t got no baby” because I am alone in everything and feel I will die alone and without family. Asking if “maybe I’ve been dealt that losing hand?” is a personal joke. Because whether I’ve been dealt a bad hand in life or not…I have made some terrible life choices.” Check out the song and video below and stream Simple Syrup, out now.