Sydney McSweeney finds ‘A Time for Love’ with help from the Bobby Floyd Trio

If not for what Sydney McSweeney long understood to be an administrative error, her life might have taken an entirely different path. 

Entering into eighth grade in Hilliard, McSweeney opted to enroll in woodshop rather than choir – a decision she described as motivated by her more introverted nature, which had prevented her from pursuing music in spite of the deep love for singing she’d held privately from childhood.

When she received her schedule, however, she was surprised to see choir listed, eventually opting to give the extracurricular a whirl at her mother’s urging. “She was like, ‘Stay in it a little bit and see how you feel,’” McSweeney said. “And of course I loved it, and then I did [choir] through high school and went on to study voice in college.”

It was only when moving into her dorm at Otterbein University years late that the singer’s mom finally confessed to having altered her daughter’s schedule, setting her on a path that led to this week’s release of her debut album, A Time for Love, recorded with the backing of the Bobby Floyd Trio. “Mother knows best, I guess,” said a laughing McSweeney, who will celebrate the album’s release in concert at Natalie’s Grandview on Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and 7. “But literally for years I thought it was the school’s mistake.”

McSweeney first met Floyd early in the pandemic, the two developing a friendship over a course of years while working together in the Columbus Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Byron Stripling. As this bond developed, McSweeney eventually approached Floyd to see if he might be interested in collaborating with her on an album, admitting she was initially hesitant to do so owing in part to his musical status. “I started to go see Bobby [perform] before I even knew him, and I was a little afraid of him and hyper-intimidated,” she said. “And, really, it was for no reason, because he’s the sweetest man on the planet.”

A classically trained singer, McSweeney found herself attracted to Floyd’s soulful playing, describing the organist and pianist as someone who never plays the same thing twice in contrast with her more studied approach. “It’s wild what comes out of his hands,” she said. “It’s always fresh and different every time he touches the organ or the piano, and I think that’s part of why people get so excited to be around him and to listen, because when you see him it’s like he’s in a trance.”

Recording with Floyd and his band, which includes drummer Reggie Jackson and bassist Derek DiCenzo, enabled McSweeney to similarly take more vocal chances, the singer flirting with a fuller, more soulful sound. “Bobby was very encouraging, like, ‘Just try it and see what comes out, and we’ll figure it out together,’” she said. “And that was such a good landing pad or safety net for me to be able to explore.”

A Time for Love arrives awash in standards by songwriters such as Bill Evans and Harry Warren, McSweeney generally gravitating toward tunes with more universal lyrical themes, and particularly those that center matters of the heart. Whether singing of people drawn together or newly drifted apart, however, McSweeney maintains masterful vocal control and phrasing, delivering each word in a manner that suggests she’s weathered the same peaks and valleys as the songs’ narrators and has learned to take things in stride. Throughout, Floyd and Co. either steady or encourage her with each step as the mood requires, the players engaged in a graceful, melodic dance that can tease out unexpected wrinkles in decades-old songs. Witness “My Foolish Heart,” which gives way to an extended musical interlude just over three minutes in, Floyd plucking out a delicate stream of twinkling notes that glow like distant stars.

The album is further benefited by those moments when McSweeney lets loose, as she does near those close of a spirited take on “Both Sides Now” when she delivers a run of fragmented syllables before breaking into a soaring, near-wordless cry. “Even with my vocal students, we learn technique and boundaries in our bodies, and then also how to push those boundaries,” she said. “And once you get to a certain part in the learning process, you realize that letting go is what helps you get to those big feelings that make us all love music. And then it’s also trusting yourself, and I feel like making this album, playing with Bobby, it’s been a huge lesson for me in learning to trust my instincts. … If you’re going to do it, you have to just let go and do it.”

Oftentimes when laying down a vocal take, the musician said her thoughts keep her present, focused on how she might phrase a particular passage, or on how close she’s positioned to the microphone. But in the midst of recording A Time for Love, McSweeney said there were occasions when it was readily apparent that she had allowed herself to release everything – her nerves, the outside noise, the pressure and sense of expectation she placed on herself in recording alongside Columbus music royalty.  And in those blissful moments, she said, there was nothing but the song.

“There can be so many things going on, and if we switch up an arrangement at the last second, it’ll be like, okay, what’s going on after this section?” McSweeney said. “But in the yummy moments, I’m not really thinking about anything else. In those moments, I’m just going for it.”