Sweet Petunia -- Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown
Boston-based duo Sweet Petunia don't just make traditional music – they want it to last into the future as an evolving art form. Their new album Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown show us what they're all about.
Sweet Petunia explores all the possibilities of string music on their breakout album Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown. The Boston-based folk duo is well-versed in traditional music, trained at Berklee College of Music. The duo, Mairead Guy (they/them) and Maddy Simpson (she/her), arrive at music through divergent paths: Guy comes from a line of traditional musicians, while Simpson was inspired to become an entertainer after a late-night viewing of American Idol when she was a child. These divergent paths create something wholly unique on Foggy Mountain Breakdown.
The duo's most striking feature is their innate harmonies: Guy and Simspon's voices intertwine to create something timeless. Their gently insistent banjo and guitar lines help create a sense of humble persistence, whether the pair are singing of lost loves, gender dysphoria, friendship breakups, or the titular mental breakdowns. Life is pain – the old songs taught us that – and life is also about seeing it through anyway.
Taking that age-old truth in mind, Sweet Petunia queer trad music with their incorporation of modern elements. "Good Part" uses electric guitar and drums to drive in its tart refrain, while the subtle synthpop on "In David's Living Room" are a foil to the jarring toxicity of new acquaintances. But it's the punk rock banjo strums on "Guise" that, for me, mark Sweet Petunia on a pair of artists who honor the past while committing to using it as a foundation for something else. Sweet Petunia don't just make traditional music – they want it to last into the future as an evolving art form.
Sweet Petunia – Official, Bandcamp, Instagram
Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown will be out tomorrow, March 13.
