PopMatters Premieres New Sara Petite Video

Though the official start of summer is still a couple of weeks away, outlaw country badass goddess Sara Petite wants to bring the heat right now. She refuses to play by any rules during an award-winning career that began in 2008 and continues to mix hot and humorous hoedowns with relentless roadhouse rock ’n’ roll. When it comes right down to it, this is a grown-up cowgirl who just wants to have fun. Ahead of the 9 June release of The Empress (Forty Below Records), her seventh studio album, Petite does just that. She sure knows how to rule the roost, even if it means “Bringin’ Down the Neighborhood” during the raucous music video that premieres exclusively today (6 June) at PopMatters. 

Starring in the video made in January in her backyard outside San Diego and what she calls the “World Famous Spring Valley Inn, home of the Beat Farmers,” Petite knows how to be the life of the party. That’s probably true wherever she goes. Swigging beer while dressed as a policewoman or carousing with belly-up-to-the-bar celebrants, the singer-songwriter playing a “hell-raising hillbilly heroine” accomplished a simple goal with her concept for a colorful cast of characters. To have “as much fun as possible!” she exclaims in an email interview for this article.

“When I was really young, my Great Aunt Marlene told me I was too serious and needed to have more fun,” she adds. “I also had a partner, John Kuhlken, God rest his soul, who loved to create fun and enjoyed watching people have fun. I wanted an afternoon where we all had as much fun as possible, got a little buzzed, and made a fun video. I think we did it!” 

Though the inspiration behind the song, released as the album’s first single on 28 February, addresses a familiar but thorny subject, Petite admits it was easy to write, owing it all to: “Family dysfunction. You have enough of it in one week, the song writes itself. I have a very fun, loving family, and we also have a lot of dysfunction as well. Like everybody else. … 

“My twin sister [Jenny] was a daffodil princess in my hometown [Sumner, Washington],” she adds. “We always were kind of the ragamuffin family in my neighborhood; we weren’t poor. Just did things a little differently. A bit eccentric hillbilly. For years I’ve had the hook [for the song] — ‘Jenny, she’s still looking good, but we’re still bringing down the neighborhood.’ One week after a lot of BS, it wrote itself in one sitting. Went to a gig, and the band fumbled through it, and it worked.”

The video, directed and edited by Rob Cribbett and shot by Tom Vizzo, was comprised “of my besties and friends I’ve known for years,” along with family members such as Jenny and their older sister. (In a twist, Jenny’s daughter plays the part of her mom as Petite sings, “Jenny, she’s still looking good …” .) 

As for the lucky lad who was on the receiving end of a kiss on the lips by Petite? “Well, the guy I was smooching was pretty hot!!! (He’s my partner 🙂 ),” she reveals, later identifying him as Jonathan Shelby Pruett. “When we go out, we’re always dancing, drinking, and making out … so [that] wasn’t really hard. My family, when it’s time to play, it’s time to swing from the trees. … Sober or unsober, we can be a lot of energy.” 

Coming from a family that includes a brother, three sisters, and “a loving mother and father”, most of whom still live in Washington state, Petite left the nest long ago. A 2003 political science and international relations graduate from US International University in San Diego, she settled outside the Southern California city and currently lives there with three dogs — Domino, Bunson, and Benny (“they’re rescues; two of them are blind,” she points out).

Regarding her other interests, Petite offers, “I love nature and hope as a community we can start taking better care of our world, our bodies, and our minds. Mother Nature has been calling on us to pay attention and take care of her and ourselves.”

Feeling blessed despite experiencing her share of heartache over the years, Petite lets her emotions loose on The Empress, which was produced by Grammy nominee Eric Corne. With lyrical handiwork found on all 11 of her songs, the LP includes co-writes with John Eddie (“Forbidden Fruit”) and Mark Stephen Jones (“She’s Come Undone”, another rocker driven by pedal steel, electric guitar, and a honky-tonk piano). 

The tunes feature Petite’s unmistakable but versatile voice, which generates a range of emotions. Hear her snarl “I am the queen / I am the witch / I am the ruler / And the bitch” a la Wanda Jackson on album opener “God Save the Queen” (without a nod or a wink to the Sex Pistols). Then swing and sway while listening to a sweet vocal treatment alongside pedal steel purity on the tender Patsy Cline-like ballad “Tread Softly”. 

So what can you expect when Petite plays her album release show later tonight (6 June) at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California, where guests are encouraged to “Bring your own mullet or Empress-themed costumes”? The answer might as well be her tagline: 

“As much fun as possible!”