North Carolina’s Sarah Shook sings with a conviction and hard honesty sorely lacking in much of today’s Americana landscape. Always passionate, at times profane, Sarah stalks/walks the line between vulnerable and menacing, her voice strong and uneasy, country classic but with contemporary, earthy tension. You can hear in her voice what’s she’s seen; world weary, lessons learned—or not—but always defiant. She level-steady means what she says. Writing with a blunt urgency—so refreshing these days it's almost startling—Sarah's lyrics are in turn smart, funny, mean, and above all, uncompromising. Sly turns of phrase so spot on they feel as old and true as a hymn. Anger that's as confrontational as it is concise. Humor that's as wry and resigned as a park bench prophet.

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers have been covered by the likes of No Depression, Independent Weekly, and Rolling Stone, with the latter including the group on their July 2016 list of "10 New Country Artists You Need to Know."

This is a new voice for a new country.

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]