Following your instincts is not as easy as Sunny Sweeney makes it look. A patron saint of broken hearts on the mend, Sweeney comforts the rest of us by being honest with herself––and everybody else. She is her generation’s sly country conscience, warm but stubborn, sad but funny, rowdy but thoughtful.     “I am so glad I’ve been able to get this far in this business and still hold my music values,” Sweeney says. “Being independent has given me the freedom to do more of what I want.”     For Sweeney, doing what she wants has meant crafting smart honky tonk for about two decades. “I really do love country music,” she says. “For me, it’s the stories and hooks.” Her new album Rhinestone Requiem is a delectable testament to that love, brimming with achingly pretty melodies and grown-up storytelling. It’s also an expertly assembled grab bag of the traditional song structures that have built country music, one three-quarter whirl at a time.    If anyone has the bona fides to be country music’s loving, defiant standard-bearer, it’s Sweeney. In addition to releasing 5 critically acclaimed albums since her 2006 debut Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame, she has become a trusted song curator and advocate for other artists as the host of her SiriusXM shows The Sunny Side of Life on Outlaw Country and Sunny Side Up on Willie’s Roadhouse. Sweeney keeps adding new feathers to her signature hat: She and her longtime guitarist Harley Husbands produced Rhinestone Requiem and are working as producers on additional projects. “We both have very strong points and very strong opinions,” Sweeney says of Husbands with a laugh. “But we work very well together.”....