Last May, I made a special point of catching Sarah Shook The Disarmers during a week-night show at Fifth Thomas in Midtown.
The crowd was not very large but the diminutive Shook and her band of ace players from North Carolina threw themselves into a blistering set of hard-hitting honky-tonk tunes about booze, broken romances and more booze. It was raw, passionate and, most of all, real. Alt-country with a punk-rock sneer thrown in for good measure. Nearly all the songs were drawn from the band’s first full-length album, “Sidelong,” on Bloodshot Records, the label that’s also home to Robbie Fulks, Jon Langford and Neko Case.
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“We recorded ‘Sidelong’ live in the studio on Easter weekend in 2015,” Shook said during a phone chat this week from Chapel Hill, N.C. “It was a four-day session and I was wasted the entire time.”
I did not have a hard time believing that alcohol was involved in the recording of such in-your-face tunes as “Misery Without Company,” “Nothin’ Feels Right But Doin’ Wrong” and the beautifully profane, self-effacing “(Bleep) Up.”
Her masterpiece, though, may be the song “Dwight Yoakam,” which is sung to an unfaithful girlfriend who has left her for a guy who can sing as smoothly as Yoakam. The lyrics go: “I’m drinkin’ water tonight cause I drank all the whiskey this morning/ Drank the whiskey this morning cos my baby, she ain’t comin’ home/ Drinkin’ water tonight cos I drank all the whiskey this mornin’/ Last night she went up to the bar/ Said she met some big country star/ She said he likes to make love when he’s smokin’/ And he don’t walk around like he’s broken/ And he sings just like Dwight Yoakam.”
Yeah, it’s not exactly your grandmother’s country ballad.
Even though Shook sounds like she grew up in a knife-and-gun-club bar not far from the Dirt City USA race track in Polkton, N.C., she hails from upstate New York, near the shores of Lake Ontario. Her parents were deeply religious people who home-schooled their daughters and kept them sheltered from pop culture.
“There was nothing but worship music and classical music in my house when I was growing up,” Shook said. “I was very, very sheltered in many ways.”
When Shook was 17, she landed a job as a cashier at the Wegmans grocery store. Her co-workers could not believe how naive she was about contemporary music. They had mercy and gave her burned copies of CDs by such artists as Elliot Smith, Belle and Sebastian and The Decemberists. She listened to them in secret with headphones late at night. As a teen, Shook taught herself to play guitar and write songs.
“I already had verses and choruses figured out and the basic structures of the song,” Shook said. “But I was writing country songs before I’d really heard country music, or even know what it was. This was before the words ‘three chords and the truth’ had ever crossed my path. … The first time I heard country music, it was mind-blowing. It was like coming home to the home I never knew I had. It was a powerful moment.”
She was blown away and heavily influenced by Johnny Cash, George Jones, Wanda Jackson, Charlie Pride, Johnny Paycheck and “basically the greats.”
In 2005, when Shook was 19, the family packed up and moved south to North Carolina. Tired of being under the thumb of her strict parents, Shook immediately married the first guy she ever dated. The marriage did not last but she is an attentive and proud mother to her young son named Jonah who is in middle school.
Kicking back against her religious upbringing, Shook’s first music group was named, fittingly enough, Sarah Shook and the Devil. The boozy band knocked around the Carolinas and Virginia but soon disbanded after recording one EP.
“We were very unambitious,” Shook said and laughed. “We were more interested in partying and drinking. You know, do shots, shoot out the lights and all that jazz.”
By the time Shook had regrouped with the Disarmers and released “Sidelong,” the world was starting to take notice of her scrappy style. In the summer of 2016, Rolling Stone magazine picked her as one of one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.”
When asked what she would say if a slick suit from Nashville paid a visit and wanted to groom her into being the next Miranda Lambert, Shooked laughed out loud and immediately shot back with: “Kiss my (bleep), buddy. I have a clear idea of how I want to steer my own ship.”
Shook The Disarmers recently returned to the studio to record the follow-up to “Sidelong.” This time around, Shook said the band has “more precision to it” and she was a little more sober and focused. The album, titled “Years,” is coming out in April and the first song, the forlorn and twangy “Good As Gold,” can be found on YouTube.
Expect to hear a few new tunes when Sarah Shook The Disarmers returns to the scene of the crime at 8 p.m. Saturday at Fifth Thomas, 1122 Thomasville Road. To sweeten the deal, the headliner of the evening is rising country star Nikki Lane, whose recent album “Highway Queen” was heralded by critics. It will be worth seeing Lane just to hear her sing “700,000 Rednecks,” which doubles as career advice in the music biz. Tickets are $20 advance and $25 day of the show. You must be 21 or older to enter.
If you want to get the evening off to an early start, Tallahassee troubadour and sharp wit Pat Puckett is performing at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Backyard Garden stage at Fifth Thomas. That show is free and open to all ages.
In the meantime, let’s take our weekly look around at the music scene. Things are kind of dead around Florida State thanks to next week’s Spring Break but there are still a few musical moments worth seeking out:
En Power to the people
The harmonizing trio En Power and Light wanders over from Wichita in the Heartland for an intimate concert at 8 p.m. Friday at The Purple House in north Tallahassee. Admission is $20 at the door. To reserve a seat and get directions to The Purple House, call 850-514-6263.
Crawled in from the swamp
The band Packrat’s Smokehouse performs its swampy, slightly spooky, voodoo-infused take on the blues at 9 p.m. Friday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $20 advance. Day of show tickets are $25. Call 850-906-0766 or visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.
Make room for Margut
Young jazz piano phenom Mason Margut enlists drummer Ronan Cowan and bass player Mikailo Kasha for an evening of swinging tunes and sophistication at 8 p.m. Saturday at Blue Tavern, 1206 N. Monroe St. There’s a $5 cover at the door.
All the blues you can use
Performers Mary Everhart, Jim Crozier, C.S. Holt, John Babich, David Cotton and Michael Harrison are all sharing the stage for “The Florida Blues All-Star Revue” at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Monticello Opera House, 185 W. Washington St. on the courthouse square in downtown Monticello. Doors open at 7 p.m. and there will be a cash bar. A reception with the artists will follow the show. Tickets are $20 per person. Call 850-576-0721 or visit www.monticellooperahouse.org.
Go for some more Gilmore
One of Florida’s finest bluesmen heats up the dance floor when Joey Gilmore The TCB Express steams in for a night of RB-flavored tunes at 9 p.m. Saturday at Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $25 advance, $30 at the door. Visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.
Mudbugs and music
Eat the tails and suck the heads while JB’s ZydecoZoo provides some authentic swamp music when Coosh’s 17th Annual Crawfish Bawl bubbles from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at Coosh’s Bayou Rouge Restaurant, 6267 Old Water Oak Road #101. The will be 1,500 pounds of mudbugs going into the bubbling pots and plenty of red beans and rice on the side. Bring along some money for the mudbug grub.
Go Spanish for the day
Spanish guitar musician Charles Santiago is playing songs from the 16th and 17th centuries during Spanish Colonial Adventure Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Mission San Luis, 2100 W. Tennessee St. Bring along the kids so they can practice archery, learn to rope cattle (not real cows, I’m pretty sure), grand a little corn and draw maps. Admission is $5 general public; $3 seniors; $2 for students 6 to 17; free for children under 6. Call 850-245-6406 or visit missionsanluis.org.
A little Ireland on the Chipola
Get a jump start on the St. Patrick’s Day holiday by taking a short road trip to see The Young Irelanders perform at 7 p.m. (CDT) at the Center for the Arts at Chipola College in Marianna, near the banks of the Chipola River. The tunes will range from traditional Irish songs to movie music. Tickets are $25 general public; $10 students (18 and under) and $5 for Chipola students. Visit www.chipola.edu/boxoffice.
And in other musical notes
Keal Franklin is making the drive down from Cairo, Georgia, for an evening of Americana music starting at 8 p.m. Friday at The Junction @ Monroe St., 2011 S. Monroe St. It’s $5 at the door. … The Jose Serrano Trio – featuring Serrano on bass, Jalen Baker on vibraphone and Andres Rosales on drums – serve up some Latin-flavored jazz from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday at The Wine House on Market St., 1335 Market St. There’s a $5 cover charge. … Jazz vocalist Jessica Menke and pianist Joshua Cossette will play a little bit of everything during a show at 8 p.m. Friday at Black Dog on the Square, 567 Industrial Drive in Railroad Square Art Park. It’s free and open to the public. … Let’s hear it for The Lizard. The band Walden Station, with lead singer Bob Horne, will get the crowds rockin’ from 5 to 9 p.m. during the Second Saturday Block Party at The Lazy Lizard Pizza Co., 168 E. Dogwood St. in Monticello. There is no cover charge. … If you’re on a tight budget during Spring Break, there’s a big night of live music by High Test, Rachel Hillman, Invented Truths and the Tuesday Supper Club starting at 9 p.m. Saturday at The Wilbury, 513 W. Gaines St. The cover charge? Nada. Zip. Free, baby. … Listen to some experimental funk and jazz when saxophone player Henry White and bass guitarists Alex Mayweather perform as a duo at 8 p.m. Saturday at Black Dog on the Square in Railroad Square. There’s a $5 cover at the door.
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