What We Say
SARAH SHOOK AND THE DISARMERS is an old school outlaw country/Americana band with punk tendencies. They are known for killer lyrics and the amazing musicianship of the DISARMERS. At its pounding heart, the new album Years, out April 6 via Bloodshot Records, crackles with a pointedly contemporary and relevant take on the outlaw spirit. Built around the buoyant pedal steel of Phil Sullivan, and the post-punk rattle and Live at San Quentin guitar hum of Eric Peterson (Flat Duo Jets, the dB's, Matthew Sweet, more), there are echoes of Nikki Lane and Merle Haggard as much as Ty Segall. Its home is the ragged-but-real honky tonk, not the bro-country “honky tonk.” The barroom singalong “New Ways to Fail” is classic, smile-through-the-pain country. “Damned If I Do” could be the “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin” of the 21st century, if we let it; a perfect song for rolling in the wry and sneaking in a quick two-step. The sinister “The Bottle Never Lets Me Down” will get anyone who’s ever been wronged righteously flipping the bird as they knock back the next shot. Therapy in the face of personal devastation takes many forms, after all.
