

Sarah Shook and the Disarmers released their first full-length album Sidelong, on October 16, 2015, at the Cat's Cradle Back Room in Chapel Hill, NC, with a re-release in 2017. & the Rosewood Bluff) on drums, Jason Hendrick on bass fiddle, and Phil Sullivan on lap steel. The band started as a recording project, with Eric Peterson on guitar, and John Howie Jr. Shook then started a new band called Sarah Shook & the Disarmers in mid to late 2014. They played regionally, mostly in North Carolina, for around a year. In 2013, Shook formed the band Sarah Shook and the Dirty Hands, with Devil bandmate Eric Peterson. The band released a seven-song EP, 2013's Seven but disbanded later the same year. The band was made up of Shook on vocals and guitar, Jon Baughman on bass, Phil Sullivan on lap steel, and Eric Peterson on guitar. In 2010, Shook started their first band, Sarah Shook and the Devil. In July 2005, when they were 19 years old, they and their family moved to Garner, North Carolina.

The family moved often when Shook was young. When Shook was 9 years old they taught themselves piano, and in high school they taught themselves acoustic guitar. They were homeschooled and grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family where music was restricted they were permitted only to listen to classical and worship music. Their "high lonesome" style incorporates country-punk and twang, with shades of outlaw country. River Shook (born September 15, 1985), known professionally by their birth name Sarah Shook, is an American country singer-songwriter from Chatham County, North Carolina.
