The fireworks have arrived early for Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, whose in-your-face video for the incendiary single “Heal Me” made its debut today on Rolling Stone Country’s list of “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know.”
The high-visibility platform praises Shook not only for her music but also for her outspokenness and repertoire of sailor’s curses. It’s hard to imagine a first-time watcher being unmoved by the video, which features Shook solo as she puts across this hard-bitten tale of regret with the aid of several cool guitars (including the Rickenbacker that plays on the song’s outro).
Singing directly to the camera, animated features partially obscured by a curtain of hair, she confronts the viewer, conveying the fierce desperation of someone who feels irreparably broken. “There’s a fever in my bones no man-made medicine can cure/but I just keep thinking surely the whiskey will,” she intones, a gorgeously dire sentiment that would make Nick Cave proud.
You can watch the video below, and be sure to check out the band’s excellent LP Sidelong if you haven’t already.
