New York, NY – Today, Boston indie-folk duo Sweet Petunia (Mairead Guy and Maddy Simpson) releases their Righteous Babe Records debut album Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown with their latest single “I Wanna Run.” Often a show opener, “I Wanna Run” explodes right from the start, drawing the listener in with lightning fast banjo notes and infectious lyrics. Listen to “I Wanna Run” HERE and to Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown HERE.
Sweet Petunia’s Simpson tells the story of “I Wanna Run” and how it began when she dislocated her knee while moshing to a punk band in an Allston basement. “I’ll never forget how searing and sudden that pain was. I wrote ‘I Wanna Run’ to convey that feeling - it’s frantic and fast, and I’m spitting out words faster than you can comprehend. It all boils over into a list of things I wanted to do, but wasn’t sure I’d ever do again - climb, mosh, fight, dance, hike, skate, slide, or worst of all, run. Every time we play this song it’s cathartic knowing that with time and incredibly hard work, I’ve been able to regain the ability to do most of these things again.”
In a rave album review of Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown, No Depression claimed, “It’s raw. It’s real. It’s memorable and unsettling.” Boston’s NPR station WBUR has championed Sweet Petunia as well, calling the duo “…one of Boston’s most arresting acoustic outfits.”
Sweet Petunia will take the Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown songs on the road when they open for Ani DiFranco on her Spirit of Love tour in April. Simpson says, “We’re thrilled to support Ani this April on her Spirit of Love tour - most of these cities will be brand new for us, but we know that we’ll be in great company among Ani, her band, and all of you Babes in the audience!” Tour dates are below and at sweetpetuniaband.com.
Sweet Petunia makes music that channels both righteous fury and profound tenderness, fusing Boston’s DIY edge with Appalachian soul. After meeting as students at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in 2018, Guy—raised in the heart of Richmond’s Celtic and old-time scene—and Simpson, who honed her ear singing radio harmonies from the backseat of her mom’s car, quickly formed a creative bond and built something electrifying together. They open every set with a blast of double-banjo fire, their breakneck precision and cutting harmonies shaped as much by punk basements in Allston as by centuries-old ballads.
Sweet Petunia funnel that same feverish intensity into Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown, a record born in the thick of unraveling—where breakups sting, friendships fray, old habits collapse under their own weight, and self-discovery feels less like revelation and more like survival. Each song moves through the ache of outgrowing what once felt essential, tracing the quiet, brutal work of becoming. The title tips its hat to Flatt & Scruggs and their high-lonesome classic “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” rooting the album in the traditional folk lineage that raised the duo. But this is no museum piece—threaded through the banjo runs and close harmonies is the pulse of basement shows and DIY grit, giving the old bones of bluegrass a restless, modern heart.
Sweet Petunia On Tour With Ani DiFranco
April 22 – Jackson, MS – Duling Hall
April 25 – Pensacola, FL – Vinyl Music Hall
April 26 – Gainesville, FL – Heartwood Soundstage
April 28 – Savannah, GA – Victory North
April 29 – Birmingham, AL – Lyric Theatre
For more information on Sweet Petunia, please contact
Karen Wiessen at Righteous Babe Records