Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

It’s obvious listening to Sarah Shook and the Disarmers’ clear-eyed, biting, and unafraid songs that integrity is the most important thing to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, country-punk outfit. “A lot of artists are in this industry for fame, recognition, and money but those things don’t meananything to me,” says bandleader River Shook. “Songwriting is it for me. It’s the only real healthy coping mechanism I’ve ever had. It’s life-saving. I don’t care about any superficial things when I’m making a record.” On their resonant fourth album Revelations, produced by Shook and out March 29 via Thirty Tigers, these raw and resilient tracks come first. Throughout, Shook’s deft storytelling documents regular people getting by and keeping on, all presented without filter or pretension. Honest to a fault and as foul-mouthed as a drunken sailor, she’s a nonconforming spitfire who’s proud of not fitting in with mainstream country music. — Rolling Stone This North Carolina honky-tonk punk strikes a defiant onstage posture with a voice that goes right for the throat, a feral switchblade snarl that sometimes eases and glides but never softens…coming across as Chrissie Hynde with a drawl.— Rolling Stone “Shook bucks both Nashville’s mainstream and the overly self-aware Americana scene…a believable transformation of country’s vintage melancholy. — The New York Times This is outlaw country in the classical sense — hard-driving songs about hard living and deep regrets. Shook leads the way with forthright lyrics that refuse to give her a pass for the pain she’s caused others — or vice-versa. — Wide Open Country Sarah Shook entered the spotlight as one of the most important new voices in new country music. Like she’s been there all her life — TIDAL Her cussed-minded delivery and blemishes-and-all defeatism [is] the perfect complement to her band mates’ hillbilly choogle. — Rolling Stone Like Tammy Wynette fronting the Ramones — Missoula Independent Her songs may draw on classic country themes such as boozing, romance (in all its ups and downs), and hard living, but her perspective is unmistakably grounded in the present. — She Shreds Magazine With Sarah Shook in the mix, hard core country is alive and well, and dangerous as all get out. — No Depression Sarah Shook & the Disarmers are a Country band out of North Carolina that wear its Rock’n’Roll smirk like a tattoo…[and] sing for sad smiles and hard-luck tales. — The Alternate Root