For homegrown country duo the Sunny Cowgirls, there’s a whole lotta road strung out behind the battered old red WB – and plenty of dust coating the guitar cases rattling and shifting in the tray. But after 15 years on the road, sisters and now mothers, Soph and Less Clabburn show no signs of slowing down.

“We’re still alive – and we’re still making music!” Less jokes.

With eight acclaimed albums, a monumental live CD and two stellar DVDs already to their credit, the Sunny Cowgirls have been delighting Australian audiences and fans ever since their tearaway debut album Little Bit Rusty landed in 2005. Now with more than 83,000 likes on the Facebook page, the Sunny Cowgirls rank among the best-loved artists in the country.

To celebrate a decade and a half on the road, the Sunny Cowgirls kicked off 2019 by setting up shop in the historic Gunnible homestead outside Gunnedah to record some new songs with great mate and sought-after producer Matt Fell.
“We had some new songs,” Soph explains, “and we thought the way to get it done would be to record at home – to bring the studio to us! We wanted to go into an old shed or a homestead to get a different sound and a different kind of vibe.”

For the Sunny Cowgirls, recording in a beautiful old farmhouse was a natural homecoming.
“It was really organic and natural and fun,” Less says of the experience. “Far less contrived and manufactured than going into a studio and clocking on at 9 o’clock. It felt really homely and natural.”
Also adding to the experience were a few hard-earned stubbies on the verandah after a hard day spent behind the microphone. The resulting EP finds the Sunny Cowgirls at their joyful, authentic, laidback best.
“There’s 6 songs on this project,” Less explains. “2 new songs, 3 of our old songs that we’ve re-done acoustically and put a different spin on them, and there’s a cover on there as well.”

Also featured on the EP are two new tracks bursting with the usual Sunny Cowgirls magic. ‘Raining Pineapples’ celebrates those special moments in which a long awaited fall of rain settles the dust at last and breathes new life into paddock and pasture. With its intoxicating mandolin and fiddle, it’s a classic Sunny tune about a good old rainy day.
The other new track is the delicate, candidly autobiographical ‘Sunny Days’.
“Spose we’ve grown along the way, but deep down we’re those two young girls crossing the Nullarbor Plan in an old red WB.”
“That song is about the last 15 years,” Less explains. “It has been a lot of hard work, but we’ve had so much fun along the way. It’s a little wrap-up of where we’ve been so far.”
“We wanted to tell a story of the journey that we’ve had,” Soph adds.
The Gunnible sessions also gave the Sunny Cowgirls an opportunity to revisit some of the best-loved songs from their incredible career to date, and to record a few earthy, re-worked acoustic versions. Representing Less and Soph’s early rousabout days and countless Friday and Saturday nights filled with singing, dancing, and a little straight-arm drinking, Little Bit Rusty opener ‘Rousy’s Life’ has long been a crowd and fan favourite. A celebration of both hard work and a hard-earned cutting out party, it’s an indisputable cornerstone of the Sunny Cowgirls story so far.
From 2006’s Long Five Days comes ‘Cuttin’ Up B & S Style’, a fired-up good-time anthem that has set countless pairs of boots kicking up the dust and festival mud the country over.
Rounding out the classic Sunny Cowgirls tracks represented on the EP is the phenomenal ‘Cowboy’ – a song that, in a few short years, has become a personal anthem for spinsters in search of a bachelor of their own at B&S balls Australia wide.
Rounding out the EP, Soph and Less revisit an old personal favourite in Lee Kernaghan’s iconic ‘Hat Town’, a dedication to all those Aussies hailing from a one-street town in the Sunny Cowgirls’ beloved outback.
As thousands of fans Australia-wide know only too well, the Sunny Cowgirls deliver a live show like no other. After a tearaway 25-date national tour in 2016, Soph and Less hit the road with great mate Sara Storer in 2018 for the landmark Love and Land tour.
Having rung in the year with another jumping show at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January, the girls are plotting a massive return to longtime stomping ground the Deni Ute Muster in October. At the end of the day, the Sunny Cowgirls’ message is clear.
“We’re letting everyone know that we’ve done a lot in the past 15 years, we’re really happy, we love what we do, and we’re gonna keep on going!” Soph says.

“We’re still making music and we have every intention of continuing!” Less adds.

One thing is certain: the Sunny Cowgirls are set to fuel up the ute for another fun-filled 15 years.