Sarah Shook’s Triumphant Return to Orlando
Sarah Shook and the Disarmers
w/ The Woolly Bushmen, and Amy Robbins
Thursday, January 31, Will’s Pub, Orlando, Florida
A scant 18 months ago I wrote about a lightly attended Sunday night show by Sarah Shook and the Disarmers at Will’s in Orlando.
on Said show was the stuff of legend. The 40 or 50 people in attendance, were properly floored by the epic performance. And by the looks of the near capacity crowd here, on Thursday night no less, everybody told somebody, and they all came out.
Sarah Shook and co. belong to that breed of country music that never ever really goes out of style. Whatever flashy trend Nashville is fixated with at any given moment, they try to ignore that unruly stepchild inclined to speak the truth no matter what. Those stepchildren would include, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Dwight Yoakum, and the like. Artists inclined to telling more honest stories of life’s missteps and heartache. All are artists who succeeded on their terms. Sarah Shook joins the ranks and you’d best to enjoy these intimate evening close up now, while you can, because endless touring and solid song craft will set her in ever bigger venues in the years to come.
Drawing from old and newer material, the show felt relaxed as they settled into their set. “Nothin’ Feels Right But Doin’ Wrong;” new single, “Devil May Care,” and “The Bottle Never Let’s Me Down,” were all fleshed out. The Disarmers are rock solid. They shuffled, swing, and provide the right amount of color to make these songs memorable. I am enjoying watching Sarah’s star climb higher. There’s no damn reason her name shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as other legendary country outsiders. Everything about her is solidly contemporary, delightfully defiant, and achingly timeless at once.
The Woolly Bushmen elude and surpass all the words my thesaurus offers for “great.” Their sheer wonderfulness is a forgone conclusion at this point anyway. It was my first chance to see them in about a year, and they covered a lot of 
territory. Uptempo numbers, steady dance floor grind, and the occasional barn burner, I didn’t recognize most of the material, so I guess it’s time to update my catalog. They served up an energized set, despite temporary physical hindrances suffered on their most recent of tours.
And it was equally nice to catch up with Mount Dora’s Amy Robbins. Accompanied by multi instrumentalist Gailanne Amundsen, Robbins own song writing has taken on a strong folk sensibility. Her songwriting grows increasingly solid and her performances are always engaging. It’s easy to have a good time, when it’s obvious the artist is having a good time as well. She keeps a busy schedule so you don’t have an excuse for not seeing her.
A refresher on my earlier thoughts:
indiemusic.co/2017/05/12/sarah-shook-and-the-disarmers-own-the-night/
