Sonny Southon - O My Heart (Self Release)

The Slow Music Movement
Sep 11
2 min read

The cover for Sonny Southon's, "O My Heart" single, showing a hand with a butterfly perched on the finger against a black background. White text reads "o my heart," creating a serene mood.

Sonny Southon is a woman of the world. An intriguing Samoan and Scottish blend who was born in New Zealand - a country she left at 17 for far flung adventures. And it appears she's had her fair share too, performing with with Duran Duran and Jonie Mitchell amongst other notables, not to mention playing at Glastonbury, Montreaux Jazz, Wembley and even Jack Nicholson's birthday. Oh yeah she also recorded a couple of albums and got a major publishing deal. The girl's got stories.

Bring it forward to the present day and she's back in New Zealand, self producing a new album and spreading knowledge through her yoga teaching and The Music Seeds program. It sounds like she's a force for good.

A black and white photo showing Sonny Southon playing guitar while sitting on a floral-patterned chair. They wear a light outfit, with an intent expression in a softly lit room.

The third single to tease her new album, "O My Heart" is a throwback, modern soul banger with all the deepness of those golden age classics, and something of the Normal Whitfield to it, and praise doesn't come much higher than that.

Kicking off with her pure and true vocals ringing through the speakers over faint piano accompaniment, you know you're in for a treat. The drums and bass slowly enter the picture but build quickly, as programmed strings add emotional heft, low key synths pad out the arrangement very nicely and the piano contributes the odd note at just at the right times to accentuate rather than distract from the star of the show - that voice. Southon digs deep too, unearthing feelings and emotions most wouldn't even know were there, then pours them through the speakers. This is a contemporary but seriously classic slice of soul music, an area where Southon sounds most at home, which you can confidently file next to your Undisputed Truth albums.