Look, I’m not gonna say it. Stop looking at me like that. I am not going to say it. I’ve been a tired old man since before the kids who decided it was a meme word were born so I cannot say it. There are hip gen z youthes on any social network who will probably be willing to take a short break from dunking on olds like me and say the meme word at you, this is serious business here. This is music time. It’s music time, dammit.

In the spirit of track three: motherfucker.

Secretly, reader (because I never post, don’t tell anyone) I’ve been listening to Sarah Shook for a few years. Sorry. The Bottle Never Lets Me Down is a capital T track, spectacular stuff. So, when I see a new Sarah Shook album, I’m gonna hit play on that, and by gum I did see a new Sarah Shook album, and I did hit play on that, and hot gat damn, reader. I say, hot fuckin’ damn.

No one sounds like Sarah Shook. Whoever you’re thinking of, false, incorrect. The Sarah Shook drawl is singular. It’s patented. World exclusive. You can feel it in your ears, pulling on the melodies, dragging them out of a familiar shape and into the shape of Sarah Shook. No one else would do this, no one else should do this, this is Sarah Shook country. Dropping “motherfucker"s back to back to back like alt-country Michael Jordan, who could hope to compete, who would dare try?

Outside of Sarah Shook’s vocals, this album is also stupid with tight guitar work. The steel in particular takes what would be a squarely alt/blues country mix and tethers it back to a classic sound. I hear that steel cry, I am transported, am I aligned, configured. There’s a cornucopia of well executed blues licks to be sure, but, all assembled, the country wins out and that mix is just right to carry those Sarah Shook vocals.

Brass tacks though: if this is your first experience with Sarah Shook, no amount of words should sell you this album. Even if you like alt-country and jangly outlaw sound, Sarah Shook is gonna start singing and it’s gonna hit you like freight train…or it’s not. Stand on the tracks and find out.