River Shook: River Shook – Album Review

On her debut solo release River Shook steps out of the Disarmers shadow and shows there’s no drop in song writing excellence as she documents the past ten years and looks ahead.

It’s been ten years since Sarah Shook and the Disarmers released their debut album Sidelong, which we reviewed here, to critical acclaim, and Shook was hailed as a rising star in the alt-country scene. In the following years the Disarmers released three more albums, toured extensively in the US and Europe, gathering fans along the way, and Shook even found time to release a side project with an indie rock band called Mightmare. Then, to many people’s dismay, Shook announced the band was splitting up. In that decade Sarah Shook became a respected songwriter and now, known as River Shook, they are releasing their debut solo album. It’s not only been an intense musical journey over that decade of releases, but a highly charged personal one for River.

They have always documented their struggles and triumphs on record, and the debut album is no exception. There are bad relationships, guilt, heartache, regret, but also joy and hope, all related with that precision eye of an artist on top form. What also remains is that voice. How to describe the voice? The trills, the range –a voice that hits you on an emotional level and sends shivers down your spine and raises the hair on your head. It’s a voice that weaves a tapestry of emotions from a life that has seen its fair share of ups and downs.

Musically, the album is paired back with simpler constructions that will probably make them more radio friendly.

The album opener is called Free At Last and, given that the album is independently released, this is a statement of intent, an artist feeling unshackled. There is a slow build up to a crescendo as the guitar and strings swell and Shook sings about the courage it takes to finally leave a bad relationship. It has a downbeat feeling, but not a broken one, as the singer reflects on the Wedding day picture, broken glass silver frame/Every bit as cold/And every bit as worthless/As a life with your last name. And the chorus is a manifesto for the album: Because come hell or high water I will be/Free at last.

There’s a mix of indie and alt-country songs on the record, but they flow so seamlessly into each other that it’s probably easiest to describe it all as indie-country.

Lead off single Country Angel has a rocking opening which captures the excitement of young friendship/love as the protagonists set off on a road trip on an open road that stretches out in front of them with hope and thrills. But, because this is River Shook, there is an edge to it, knowing that things won’t stay the same, that things must change: But you can’t tie a feeling down/Can’t keep it the same/I’m gonna cry my fucking eyes out/On the day that you change. Lost Without Your Love is an outlaw country ballad written on the set of the film Carolina Caroline (a movie about the lovers and bandits Oliver and Caroline) and captures the thrill of being taken out of the small-town poverty (of money and soul) to an outlaw life on the road ‘sticking up banks and stealing fast cars’.

Bad relationships have always been a source of inspiration for Shook. Fading describes how the person grows in the silence after a bad relationship is escaped, whilst the ex-partner fades away. If We Got a Chance is all about how life on the road for a musician is hell on relationships. It is driven by a powerful bass line and almost slips from indie into a power ballad. Life on the road can also destroy family relationships and Beater Car is a heartbreaking song about the important days they have missed in their son’s life. They regret chasing a dream for ten years, at the expense of spending time with their child. And after those ten years they still can’t afford a beater car for his graduation. My pride and joy, my heaven sent/How can I forgive myself for having nothing in my hands/I traded too much time/Running down some dream of mine.

And whilst Venom and Gold is a melancholic song about a two-faced friend, it isn’t all downbeat, there are two songs that see River opening their heart about good relationships.

Blue Vervain is a beautiful love song about how the small things in a good relationship can bring so much joy and pierce the heart. Well I die when you slide your hair/Back behind your ear/And it kills me when you smile when you’re reading/Some book that takes you far from here. It’s sung with heartfelt and tender vocals. Running To Georgia describes how two souls, running from different things, end up encountering each other in a Savannah dive bar called El Rocko and find that, just when you’ve given up on love it smacks you in the face like a sledgehammer. It describes the clarity of the moment perfectly: Oh and I knew it was over for me/I was on the verge of bursting into tears/It was all that I could do to stand there still/When I’d given up on finding you for years. After all the bad relationship songs from River and Sarah Shook it’s enough to bring a tear to your eye and make you wish them all the best.

The album ends with an initially sad country song about how their family, their parents, didn’t understand them, and didn’t care: Well I wish my daddy listened/When I told him who I am/Wish he was as proud of me/As I am, as I am. Loving Me Is Like Rolling A Big Old Rock describes how never receiving love made them feel they were incapable of being loved. Until He rocks me like a lullaby/He’s my needle in the hay/I love my baby and he loves me/And he would never say that/Loving me is like a rolling a big old rock. The album ends on this optimistic note that they are finding their place in the world and looking forward with confidence and hope.   

River’s debut album feels like a fork in the road. The great tunes are here, the voice is as amazing as always, but it feels as though they have come through the ups and downs of being in a band and the storms of her personal life –they look back on a decade of playing and touring, the good and the bad, and sets their sights on the future as a solo artist, in a strong relationship, clean and sober.

Photo credit: Jillian Clarke

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You can find River Shook online here, Instagram, Facebook, Tidal, Apple, Bandcamp and Spotify.

All words by Mark Ray. More writing by Mark Ray can be found at his author archive. And he can be found on Instagram.