Sarah Shook and Kelly Willis are a generation apart in age, but listening to each songwriter’s new album in succession prove that breakups, kiss-offs, and immediate consolation are timeless themes in country music. Just about every jacked-up song on Shook’s recently released second album, Years (Bloodshot), addresses good-for-nothings that the singer has either dumped or deems unworthy of her time. On the opener “Good as Gold,” she admits she’s afraid of losing, then quickly adds, “Not afraid of losing you”—sticking with a lover who doesn’t treat her well would cost her much more. In “The Bottle Never Lets Me Down” she downplays her own excesses; she doesn’t need to worry about where her next sip might be, which is more than she can say about her lover’s vices: “You won’t find it running around / In the darkest corners of this town.” Shook’s band the Disarmers are fairly workmanlike, though Phil Sullivan does a great job bringing out a vocallike pathos in his pedal steel lines, but her powerful wail commands attention—if she learns to modulate her instrument with more nuance she could be unstoppable.
Sat 6/30, music starts at 1:30 PM, Kelly Willis plays at 8:30 PM, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers play at 6 PM, FitzGerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, $40, $140 four-day pass, 21+, all-ages before 10 PM
