River Shook carries the country-rock torch of Sarah Shook & the Disarmers into an exciting new era. Shook debuts as a solo artist this year, and continues to deliver everything we’ve come to expect from them: killer songwriting, a smoking hot band, and high-energy, heart-winning live shows.
You can catch them right back here in Davis Friday, November 13th 2026 at Davis Odd Fellows Hall, doors open at 7pm with music at 8pm (support TBA). We’re excited to announce that River has added support by DLMC and DMF alum and all around outstanding songwriter and performer ISMAY.
This is a guaranteed DLMC member supported event, so members – you’re already on the will-call list. Everyone else, hit the link for tickets now!
River Shook’s galvanizing, self-titled, debut solo album (Independent, June 26, 2026) is a
mythic body of work. Arrow-to-the-heart honest lyrics, unforgettable characters, rock-god
electric guitar solos, shimmering pedal steel, and Shook’s unmistakable voice cut like a ray of light through a great darkness, coaxing listeners towards a deeper level of awareness and empowerment.
In rebellious country rocker “Country Angel,” a narrator immerses herself in the feelings of
young love and freedom, while her old-soul sensibility tugs gently with a reminder that this night, this feeling, this person, they’re all already slipping through her fingers. “You can’t tie a feeling down,” Shook’s haunting voice soars in the chorus, delivering twin doses of joy and sorrow.
In “If We Got A Chance,” Shook takes an honest stock of their situation as a touring artist: they miss their partner back home, they’ve been gone too long, and they’re struggling to patch up a fight while navigating a grueling schedule on the road. We find a range of relatable themes: work obligations delaying the speedy resolution of an argument, getting burned out on a thankless job, or choosing not to give up on a struggling relationship.
Shook’s songwriting has never been more inspiring. Throughout the album, Shook intentionally explores themes we tend to avoid, reminding us that we’re braver than we think, that we can handle hard truths about ourselves, and that we can change course the moment we’re ready.
Touring 150 days per year with the Disarmers gave Shook a significant advantage that they did not let go to waste; they spent a decade developing their stage presence, honing their storytelling, and learning how to give audiences across the world an unforgettable, potentially life-changing experience. Shook’s egalitarian songwriting, their ability to make fans feel seen, and their reputation as a wildly exciting front person have led them to be referred to as “punk” and “rock n’ roll” as frequently as they’re called country.
“My songwriting, my music, they’re country to the bone, but it’s that rock n’ roll element that makes the whole thing lift off,” says Shook. “If you want to give fans an unforgettable show every night, you need that reckless energy and purity of spirit”
“…the music Shook is releasing under their own name hews much closer to the Lucinda-fronting-the-Replacements sound of the Disarmers. Crucially, though, it’s unburdened by that band’s history. River Shook opens with “Free at Last,” a slow-burning divorce ballad that could just as easily be about the demise of the Disarmers: “Today I am cutting all ties with my past… Come hell or high water, I will be free at last.” Over the next 37 minutes, Shook shows us what that freedom sounds like.” – Pitchfork (7.0)
Avery Hellman (ISMAY) has been a rancher, an alt-country musician, and, always, a dreamer. But they recently found themself once more while looking for Lucinda Williams. In 2023, Hellman was hard at work on an album, podcast, and documentary delving into the psyche of the country singer-songwriter when they discovered how much poetry played into Williams’ general talents. “That was a really big shift for me,” Hellman says. “I was like, ‘Well, why don’t I learn how to write poetry?’” Add another job to that resume.
Coincidentally, Hellman had been invited to the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Nevada, where they presented a few early poems — and opened the barn door. Creativity stampeded out, and, with the help of co-writer/producer Sam Cohen, they penned their new record as alt-country project ISMAY, Half Truth, out June 12th 2026 on Fossil Records. “My intention with the album, especially given the fact that a lot of the songs started as poems, wasn’t to be perfect,” they say. “I wanted the words to be in the forefront — not smooth, but raw.”
The result is an 11-song suite of wry yet lonesome tracks about rodeo horses, salvation, and finding yourself — again and again.