@slaw - I finally got around to checking out Sarah Shook & The Disarmers - "Sidelong". I have mixed feelings about it. I think it could have been seriously EXCELLENT. However Sarah seems to be enamored with squeaking/squealing at the end of too many notes and also doing some kind of weird rat-a-tat-tat/warble thing at the end of some words. I don't know why she feels the need to do those things so often. They are distracting IMO and the songs would be much better without those embellishments. Get rid of those distractions and I would give it an A+. However, the vocal distractions drop it down to "novelty act" for me.
Your thoughts?