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Sunny Ledfurd plays his own brand of music: original, a touch of rap, a slice of rock, and plenty of country. Contributed photo
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Redneck Renaissance
The Rising Sun of Sunny Ledfurd
VALDOSTA —
Sunny Ledfurd is one of those rare musicians who went from having to play cover songs in bars to one whose fans demand his original tunes.
“No, they don’t like to hear covers,” Ledfurd says of his fans in a recent phone interview with The Valdosta Daily Times. “When I first started, I mixed them up some, but I gave away a lot of CDs everywhere I played. Just gave them away. But when I came back to town, the people who’d been there before knew my songs and so did their friends who’d heard my CD.”
Now, Ledfurd hopes to attract more fans with his latest CD, “Sunny Ledfurd: Greatest Hits 2003-2009.”
If you never heard of Sunny Ledfurd prior to his July 4 Valdosta concert, you might wonder how can this guy we’ve never heard of have a greatest hits album?
Simple. Ledfurd has recorded several independent CDs while pulling himself up by the musical bootstraps. Having found a label with Average Joes, which also records country rapper Colt Ford and singer Brantley Gilbert, Ledfurd and the producers decided to package some of the best songs from those past independent efforts.
“These are my greatest hits,” Ledfurd says, “the songs I have to play at almost every show. These are the songs the fans come out to hear. The ones I have to play or I’d get run off the stage.”
Sunny Ledfurd writes tough songs, two-fisted tunes that’ll punch you in the face or maneuver to outdrink you. Ledfurd writes hard-living songs for hard-living people. People who work hard, play hard, and party hard.
He’s one of those hard-chargers who manages to steamroll ahead while seeming like one laid-back dude. These are the songs he has to play because they are the songs he lives. It’s part of the reason he started writing songs in the first place. He had things he wanted to say and ways he wanted to say them. And he didn’t hear anyone else doing what he wanted to do. Sunny Ledfurd writes songs he not only wants to perform. He writes songs he wants to hear.
“I make sure the music I’m writing is something I enjoy,” Ledfurd says. He’s long been ready to write that music whenever inspiration strikes. Write it, compose it and record it — often all at the same time.
Behind the hard-living of his songs is an astute businessman as well as musician. The Greatest Hits concept allows him to mine past songs as fresh material for new and growing audiences. He still shares a house with his older brother who works as Ledfurd’s manager, keeping his business family-close and as close as a walk down the hallway day or night when he’s not on the road. And he keeps his ability to make new music just as close.
Saving his money from the road, one of his earliest investments was a home studio. The studio allowed him to record those several independent CDs during the past decade. Day or night, Ledfurd could step into his studio to write and record. Often he would walk away with a song written, composed and recorded for release within one session — always sending his studio work to Miami for finishing touches.
Ledfurd was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., and raised in North Carolina. He taught himself how to play guitar at the age of 15. He was playing clubs by 17. For a guy who doesn’t play covers, he learned so many songs that he claims he could still play the guitar for days without ever repeating a song.
Having grown up to his mom’s music of Billy Joel, Glenn Campbell, the Rolling Stones and the Carpenters, he discovered on his own Guns ’n Roses, David Allen Coe, and Snoop Dog. Though his music has a definite country edge, he doesn’t deny any of his influences when writing songs.
On a Sunny Ledfurd album, listeners will find rock, rap, grunge, all with the twang of backwoods country. Sunny Ledfurd may well be a one-man redneck renaissance.
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