In the world of americana and country, there are some themes that come up time and time again: drinking, touring, love and then, somewhat inevitably, infidelity. While the majority of these songs are about either being cheated on or the guilt associated with the act of extramarital relations, ‘From a Table Away’, from Texas country powerhouse Sunny Sweeney’s 2011 album ‘Concrete’, takes a less on the head – and dare I say far more interesting – approach.
“I bet you’d never guess who I saw tonight / Guess you didn’t see me in those low dim lights,” Sweeney starts, speaking to a man she has been having an affair with in what’s pretty standard stuff until it takes a turn: “I knew who she was / By the ring still on her hand / Sure looked like you still wanted to be her man.” That’s right, the other woman has only gone and caught her married lover cheating on her with the wife he’d vowed to leave.
The second verse might be the most biting because it’s the most telling of the kind of person Sweeney is dealing with. “I thought she was pretty / She’s nothing like the things you said / The woman you described / Couldn’t even turn your head” paints a picture of a man bad mouthing and degrading his wife better than the words he must have said, and you feel for the wife in moment, only to be swiftly taken out of it and suddenly sympathising for the other woman watching the display of affection: “The two of you look lost / Inside a world all your own / Like you couldn’t wait to get her alone.”
The great thing about ‘From a Table Away’, which Sweeney wrote with songwriters Bob DiPiero and Karyn Rochelle after witnessing the situation described first hand, is that it avoids so much of the clichéd drama of a song about a woman scorned; it’s refreshing not just because it’s different, but also because realistically, how could anyone be surprised at being made false promises by a cheater? “And I heard you tell her you still love her / So it doesn’t matter what you say / I saw it all / From a table away,” she finishes up disappointed, but you get the impression, not entirely surprised either. “Yes you’re gonna stay / A table away.”
If you’d like a follow-up of sorts to ‘From a Table Away’, look no further than to ‘You Don’t Know Your Husband’ from Sweeney’s next album, 2014’s ‘Provoked’: “You don’t know your husband like you think you do / Girl, I could tell you somethin’ about the man you’re married to,” she tells the other woman to her other woman, but ultimately, and unsurprisingly, things don’t turn out so well for anyone: “Well he tells me that he’s leaving you, then he tells me he’s gonna stay / Uh-uh, girl, he’s gotta swear he wants us, honey, he can’t have it both ways / Speaking of lies, he told me last night he was drinking at some bar / And I then found him with another woman in the backseat of your car.”
Also she’s great live and when I saw her, the band was very good.