Joe Pernice – Sunny, I Was Wrong

When a song comes, I make sure I dont let it go by, says Joe Pernice. Sunny, I Was Wrong, his first studio album of new material under his own name, was born during a period of concentrated inspiration and productivity. Songs were coming almost more quickly than he could get them down on tape, as though theyd been waiting to pounce at just the right time. With a little help from his friends, Pernice fashioned a handful of them into a beautiful refinement of all the qualities that have distinguished him as a songwriter over the years: his facility for aching melodies, his penchant for arrangements that nod to pops past without getting mired in nostalgia, and a deep empathy for the characters who inhabit his verses.

Pernice has been catching songs for thirty years now, first with the alt-country legends Scud Mountain Boys and then with the indie-pop mainstays Pernice Brothers. In both of those groups he etched bittersweet stories out of songs that