Sarah Shook

Sarah Marie Shook (born September 15, 1985) is an American country music singer-songwriter from North Carolina. Their "high lonesome" style incorporates country-punk and twang, with shades of outlaw country.

Early life
Shook was born in Rochester, New York. They were homeschooled and grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family where music was restricted; they were permitted only to listen to classical and worship music. When Shook was 9 years old they taught themselves piano, and in high school they taught themselves acoustic guitar.

The family moved often when Shook was young. In July 2005, when they were 19 years old, they and their family moved to Garner, North Carolina.

Career
In 2010, Shook started their first band, Sarah Shook and the Devil. The band was made up of Shook on vocals and guitar, Jon Baughman on bass, Phil Sullivan on lap steel, and Eric Peterson on guitar. The band released a seven-song EP, 2013's Seven but disbanded later the same year.

In 2013, Shook formed the band, Sarah Shook and the Dirty Hands, with Devil bandmate Eric Peterson. They played regionally, mostly in North Carolina.

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers
Shook started a new band called Sarah Shook & the Disarmers in mid to late 2014. The band started as a recording project, with Eric Peterson on guitar, and John Howie Jr. (Two Dollar Pistols, John Howie Jr. & the Rosewood Bluff) on drums, Jason Hendrick on bass fiddle, and Phil Sullivan on lap steel.

Sarah Shook and the Disarmers released their first full-length album Sidelong, on October 16, 2015, at the Cat's Cradle Back Room in Chapel Hill, NC, with a re-release in 2017. Sidelong was produced by Ian Schreier at Manifold Recording Studios, which is near the Haw River in North Carolina. The record was tracked and recorded live in April 2015. The band found regional and national success with the record. She signed with Kathie Russell of RedKats Artist Management, which led to their signing with Chicago's Bloodshot Records in January 2017.

The records was number 2 on Indy Week's top 25 best albums of 2015. Sarah Shook and the Disarmers were listed as one of 10 New Country Artists to Know in July 2016. Also in 2016, BuzzFeed Community listed Shook as one of five women country artists who are impacting music, and the album received positive reviews.

In April 2018, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers released their second record, which was called Years, on Bloodshot Records. Shook and the band worked on the songs while touring heavily. Shook also focused on learning vocal techniques as a way to control and release their vocals, which led to what many reviews cite as a crisper vocal sound. Music critic Greg Kot compares their vocals to those of jazz vocals, noting that Shook and the band, who have toured together for years, are ferocious. The song, "Good as Gold," was chosen as one of Rolling Stone's 10 best country and Americana songs of the week in March 2018. Years has received positive reviews.

The Disarmers is made up of Eric Peterson on guitar, Aaron Oliva on bass, Jack Foster on drums, and Adam "Ditch" Kurtz on pedal steel.

A documentary, What it Takes: film en douze tableaux, from director Gorman Bechard premiered at Independent Film Festival Boston 29 April 2018, and was released to DVD on November 9, 2018. The film follows Shook as they wrote and recorded their album Years. As the If It's Too Loud music blog says, "Film documentaries are typically put out by a record company as a way to cash in on an artist and are little more than fluff pieces, or they focus on drama within a band. What it Takes: film en douze tableaux doesn't do any of that. While Bechard is an obvious fan of his subject, he shows them as is, and doesn't try to show them glossed over or hyped up."

In November 2021, Shook announced a third album, Nightroamer, to be released on February 18, 2022 via Thirty Tigers (following the sale of Bloodshot Records, which had caused the album to be delayed). In addition to returning members Peterson, Oliva, and original pedal steel player Phil Sullivan, Will Rigby joins on drums and there are additional tracks from organist Skip Edwards, with longtime Dwight Yoakam collaborator Pete Anderson producing.

Personal life
Shook has a son. Shook is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

Shook grew up in a deeply religious environment and is an atheist. Shook identifies as bisexual, and is politically active in supporting LGBT and civil rights causes. Along with fellow musician and activist Erika Libero (Henbrain), they won the 2016 Indy Arts Award for their work with Chapel Hill-based Safe Space initiative, which was an effort to get local businesses to put up stickers that offered safe spaces for people needing it, and for their work putting on a two-day music festival, Manifest, which includes bands that have at least one female or non-binary member.

Discography

 * EP
 * 2013: Seven (self-released, as Sarah Shook and the Devil )
 * LP
 * 2015: Sidelong (self-released, re-released on Bloodshot Records in 2017 )
 * 2018: Years (Bloodshot Records)
 * 2022: Nightroamer (Thirty Tigers)