P.F. Sloan wrote, and Barry McGuire sang, “hate your next door neighbour but don’t forget to say grace” – and whilst that’s a fine skewering of hypocrisy we can’t help but wonder what he would have been penned if Sara Petite had been that next door neighbour. On ‘Bringin’ Down The Neighbourhood‘ Sara Petite lays out a series of drunken brawls, dubious legality and raucous – and loud – sounds. Is that a gunshot? Someone call the cops!
It’s all done with a mix of honky-tonking, rock and outlaw country to make for a mighty racket in itself. It’s blend that Sara Petite has spent the best part of two decades working on – as she says “When I first began playing shows, people used to tell me ‘You’ve gotta pick a sound’ – I didn’t like that advice. I like to do things my way, and that means going all over the map, from country to rock & roll to soul to punk. This music is my own, after all. It should sound like me.”
‘Bringin’ Down The Neighbourhood‘ off the album ‘The Empress‘ out June 9th, 2023 via 40 Below Records. It’s an album that has at its heart stories of strong women, Petite describes this theme as reflecting on a need for women to have the same perceived status as men, as she comments “The more that women are respected and held to the same level of importance as men, the better off we’re all going to be. On this album, I’m not writing about misogyny as much as I’m writing about my own life and the strong women I see in my world.”
Sara Petite told Americana UK that ‘Bringin’ Down The Neighbourhood‘ is “A tongue in cheek truth telling story about family fun and dysfunction. My sister was a daffodil princess and I always wanted to write a song with the tag: Jenny’s still looking good but we’re still bringing down the neighbourhood.”
I like it