“I don’t know
If half of what I sing is true.
But every line was sung to you.”

-- “It Got Away From Me” by Joe Pernice

Joe Pernice is one of those names that, once you’ve taken an interest in modern Americana / power-pop singer-songwriter music, just keeps surfacing.

Through three decades as principal songwriter and lead voice of first Scud Mountain Boys, then Pernice Brothers—not to mention serial side projects Chappaquiddick Skyline, The New Mendicants, and Roger Lion—Joe Pernice has proven himself to be the epitome of the reliable craftsman, one of those writers who impresses you not with flash or topicality, but with the consistent intelligence and beauty of his art.

Which is one of the reasons why it feels so counter-intuitive to read on New West’s one-sheet that Pernice’s new album Sunny, I Was Wrong is technically his first official studio album of original material as a solo artist (not counting home recordings and covers albums). It’s also a collection that taps into his deep roots in the singer-songwriter community, delivering tunes where he partners up with top-tier contemporaries and influences Aimee Mann, Rodney Crowell, Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub, the Mendicants), and Jimmy Webb.

Sunny further receives sterling support from an all-star team of players that includes a core band of Jim Creeggan (bass / Barenaked Ladies), Mike Evin (keys, vocals / solo), and Mike Belitsky (drums / Pernice Brothers, Neko Case), as well as notable guests including the superb Burke Carroll (pedal steel / many sessions), James Walbourne (guitars / Pretenders), and Pete Mancini (guitars / solo, Butchers Blind).

Kickoff track “Peace In Our Home” is that rare bird, a calm and gentle kiss-off whose opening line says it all: “There’ll be peace in our home when you’re gone.” It establishes the vibe for the whole album—homespun tunes whose deceptive simplicity soon reveals layers of both sound and meaning as the arrangements and narratives unfold. Early highlight “Deep Into The Dawn” finds Mann blending voices with Pernice to lovely effect, a story-song told over a bed of acoustic strums decorated with evocative chiming piano accents.

Pernice’s voice is attractive like an antique dresser, resonant and comfortably worn, qualities brought to the fore on shambling slow rocker “If You Go Back to California,” featuring guest (and track co-writer) Michael McKenzie’s Southwest-flavored electric guitar. The entire lyric is a single chorus repeated three times with subtly different phrasings, with a big, languorous guitar solo between the second and third; it’s less a song than a vibe: sunny, dry, relaxed.    

The gorgeous “Force Feed The Fire” opens with sublime acoustic guitar (Pernice) and shimmering piano (Evin), a contemplation about living inside your head, healing yourself and overcoming your fears, and then we’re into “The Black And The Blue,” easygoing Americana with a wise lyric about figuring out your life and priorities. Pernice’s delicate yet confident vocal welcomes you in on this first of three tunes featuring Walbourne, as well as a jamming piano break from Evin. Rodney Crowell guests on “It Won’t Be Me,” zooming in on decision time for a relationship with a lyric that’s both wise and tart: “Half-hearted loving is a waste of life / They say once is plenty if you’re doing it right. / Sure-bet money I can guarantee / You might settle for someone but it won’t be me.”

Norman Blake contributes sweet harmonies to album highlight “I’d Rather Look Away,” a mid-tempo number about a wounded soul who can’t stand the thought of politely greeting his ex in public. The subtly layered tune is lit up by electric, slide, and 12-string guitar work from fellow singer-songwriter Pete Mancini, recently revealed as a member of Pernice’s touring band for his upcoming dates. Next up, the title track—a confession of guilt to another ex—features both Walbourne (acoustic guitar) and brother Bob Pernice (harmony vocals). Uncharacteristically for these sorts of laments, the narrator take responsibility: “I’m sorry if I thought you were / The mirror of my life and not your own / Sunny, I was wrong.”

In the late going, the winsome “Is It Serious” features Pernice’s spouse Laura Stein on harmony vocals in an arrangement anchored by Evin’s smoky nightclub piano. “Twenty-Thousand Times” is a stately, rather mystical fable about being in a relationship with a troubled woman featuring a horn section of Josh Karp (trumpet) and Greg Kramer (trombone) across the second half. Closing things out, “It Got Away from Me” features Jimmy Webb’s lilting piano on this elegy to a life that got away, with Andrew Joslyn’s strings adding on before Webb puts the cherry on top with a very pretty solo.

“I blew half my life on things I can’t explain,” sings Pernice on the latter tune, somewhat of a headline for this album about achieving a certain age and reckoning with your missteps and regrets. Self-produced by Pernice, these songs are framed in the same gently burnished sound—everything rendered in golden, shimmery tones—that Pernice Brothers albums often have been. Sunny, I Was Wrong is a superb and often moving look back from midlife by an exceptional singer-songwriter and his phenomenally talented group of friends.

Rating: A-

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