Sunny War at The Wayfarer

20 Dec Sunny War at The Wayfarer

By Meg Linton

On December 9, 2021, with some trepidation about whether to mask or not because of the new Omicron variant, I ventured out with a few friends to The Wayfarer: A House of Social Provisions in Costa Mesa to see one of my favorite young guitar-strumming song-writer poets and NPR/KCRW-described folk-punk phenom Sunny War. Opening for her was the energized Orange County band Delving, who said it was their first time playing together on stage in this iteration, and the solo artist Caitlyn Jemma backed by members of Delving.

While The Wayfarer offers an intimate and enjoyable music experience in a side room away from the bar, jumbo television, and pool tables, the sound quality was uneven and made it difficult to hear the lyrics.  Also, the order of the musicians should have been reversed despite Sunny War being the headliner. The lineup began with the crescendo frenzy of the Delving, whose performance was accompanied by the hoots and hollers of family and friends. Caitlyn Jemma holding her own in the middle calmed the mood a little, and the session ended with Sunny War alone on the stage with her guitar, rawness, and intensity. For a $10 cover, it was a feast for all who chose to listen.

War’s selection of emotionally charged songs swayed back and forth between older favorites like “Have Another Pill, “she wrote when she was 13 and navigating this country’s mental health system and selections from her recent album releases Simple Syrup(2021), Lagniappe Sessions(2020), and Can I Sit With You?(2020). The title song “Can I Sit with You?” made a number of 2020-Best-Of lists and is a tender tune about reaching across the aisle of isolation and keeping those troubled “hellhounds at bay.” War is a seasoned performer known for her self-deprecating chatter, her mischievous smile, and her mesmerizing fingerstyle and clawhammer technique. Her long, flexible digits walk along the guitar with confidence and speed and only stumble when she wants to offer a smidge of discord to the beauty she’s creating. This is a woman who knows roses come with thorns, stinging bees make honey, and a global pandemic comes with more curses than blessings.

A few gems from the evening include “Red White and Blue,” a protest song she posted on Facebook on June 4, 2020 – the day of George Floyd’s memorial in Minneapolis.  The lyrics speak for themselves: Red white and blue / they are coming for you / from sea to shining sea / Jesus and democracy / be running our world / like a business/ leaving our earth / barren and sick doing it all for the dollar / killing our world / and dying wit it.  

In an attempt to lighten the deliciously smoldering mood, War played her “bossa nova” number called “Shell,” from the album Shell of A Girl (2019). Anyone who has lost themselves to an emotionally vampiric relationship, will relate to this one. For me it brought to mind some of the sentiments from Vanessa Daou’s collaboration with poet Erica Jong and the song “Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit” from the album Zipless (1994). War’s music exposes her struggles, her scarred heart, and her humanity. In one of her pre-COVID standards, she poses the age-old question “How do you know if you have a heart, if it wasn’t broken.” If you get a chance to see this talented performer live, please make an effort to do so. In the meantime, enjoy exploring her work online.

Meg Linton is an independent visual arts curator and writer based in Southern California.