Tonight is a celebration of ten years’ worth of country-meets-cow punk. However, nothing lasts forever, and everyone in attendance knows that this is the last time Sarah Shook and the Disarmers will ever play in Scotland.

Defiant, yet always hopeful in the face of despair, these musical observations of life are delivered with a sanguine attitude, sung in a one-too-many 3 a.m. North Carolina accent that makes you want to believe life isn’t as yin and yang, or as black and white, as everyday experience may lead you to believe.

River Shook (FKA Sarah Shook)’s raw and unwavering storytelling translates so wonderfully to the live environment, and compact venues such as The Hug & Pint are the perfect spaces from which to absorb these observations. The music may be less punk than in previous years, but the no-nonsense lyrics and their delivery are as quick-witted and retaliatory as ever. Honest and plausible, real and relatable. Eloquent yet profane. A bitter pill delivered as sweet medicine in the form of exquisite music that veers from country twang to Pacific Coast Gun Club.

Songs such as Good as Gold, Nightingale, Sidelong, Jane Doe, and Motherfucker sit so wonderfully together, and the chance to hear them live—just once—is a thing I shall always be grateful for.

Such beauty derived from hopelessness, heartache, or anguish is a strangely wonderful thing.

After four albums’ worth of between-the-eyes straight talking, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers have decided to call it a day. But there is always tomorrow, and I am impatient to see what River Shook brings next. Whatever it is, it will undoubtedly pull at the heartstrings and trigger feelings that’ll make you want to laugh, dance—and probably cry.

I’ll see you there.

River Shook – Vocals/Guitar/Songwriter

Blake Talent – Lead Guitar

Mason Thomas – Bass

Ethan Standard – Drums

Taylor Swan – Pedal Steel

Images: Chris Hogge

Words: Nick Tammer