Country punk band fronted by Sarah Shook back in LR

The final song on the new Sarah Shook & the Disarmers album Years is also the title cut and comes after nine tracks of whiskey-soaked, country punk with titles like "The Bottle Never Lets Me Down," "Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don't," "New Ways to Fail" and "Heartache in Hell."

"Years," has a jaunty lilt, with Shook singing in her lonesome twang of a dead-end relationship finally biting the dust. There's also a neat little breakdown before the end and Shook beautifully drags out the last few notes. It's a fitting coda and, surprisingly, was a last-minute addition to the album, which will be released April 6 by Bloodshot.

"At the time, we were rehearsed and up to speed and ready to go into the studio," Shook says from her home in Chapel Hill, N.C. "We had 11 songs that were going to be on the album, and I had this feeling that there was something missing. I wrote 'Years' two weeks before we went into the studio."

She worked on the new track with the Disarmers and, spoiler alert, it made the cut.

"I was really happy with the way that it came out. I was determined to have that on the record and also have it be the title track. It was a very last-minute, but very important, decision for me."

Shook and the band -- longtime musical partner and lead guitarist Eric Peterson, bassist Aaron Oliva, drummer Kevin McClain and steel guitarist Adam Kurtz -- will perform Wednesday at South on Main in Little Rock as part of the venue's Sessions series.

Years is the follow-up to last year's equally outlawish debut, Sidelong, which was a breakthrough for the 32-year-old Shook, a single mother who had been working while playing music on the side around Chapel Hill with Peterson in bands like Sarah Shook and the Devil and Sarah Shook and the Dirty Hands.

"There's a lot of anxiety about a sophomore album," she says. "The pressure is on. You feel you've made a good debut album and the follow-up needs to be just as good if not better. But I'm really happy with it and I'm super proud of my bandmates."

Before Sidelong, touring wasn't on her radar, as she chose to stick close to home for her son, Jonah, who is now an 11-year-old middle-school student.

"He was my number one priority," she says. "He was still young enough at the time and there were some crucial, formative years. He's still in that, but he's a lot older and more mature now. He's a pretty level-headed little guy and we work out ways to stay in touch. I feel confident going on tour now that he will be fine, and when I'm home it's important to make it quality, Mom-and-Jonah time."

And when the road and its unpredictability calls, she's there.

"I love it," she says of touring. "I love being thrown into crazy situations where you never know what you're going to get, you don't know where you're sleeping. I'm all about it. That's adventure to a T."

That fearless attitude is evident in her music, which is unvarnished country with a punkish stance that has earned her more than a few comparisons to label mate Lydia Loveless as well as Margo Price and Hurray for the Riff Raff.

She and the Disarmers were in Little Rock about this time last year for a gig at Stickyz Rock 'n' Roll Chicken Shack, after a hectic seven shows in four days at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Ailing vocal chords and technical problems had her cut the set short and leave the stage.

"That was a bit of a train wreck," she says. "About five songs in, my voice was gone. If I kept going, I would damage my voice further."

Things should go better this time around.

"We're all stoked to be coming back to Little Rock," she says.

Style on 03/20/2018