Sisters Katelyn and Laurie Shook have spent more time together than most siblings. While the identical twins from Sandpoint, Idaho, are best known for weaving vocal harmonies and plucked banjo strings into their own idiosyncratic brand of danceable folk-pop as the eponymous Shook Twins, they are not as inseparable today as they’ve been for the majority of their lives.
From singing in grade school choir, to enrolling at the University of Idaho in Moscow, to moving to Portland, the sisters — together — have always been cornerstones of their musical community. So, what does life look like now that one half of the duo got married and moved back to Sandpoint?
“Our lives have been a lot different since COVID, really. Everything really shifted career-wise for us,” Laurie Shook tells the Source Weekly. In 2019, “we were feeling like we wanted a huge change.” They talked about taking “a big break, maybe like two years,” she laughs. “We definitely did that.”
Katelyn moved back to Sandpoint in 2020 and “started working at our hometown theater,” Laurie says, “and I’ve just been hopping in other people’s bands or doing other little things.”
“We changed the way we framed our career, and it’s not all based on us driving around singing our songs, you know. It’s a lot less pressure, and I think it’s been really helpful. And living apart from Katelyn has also been really helpful,” Laurie says.
“We spent 36 years living together and living in a van together, and so I think the space is really welcomed. And our relationship has shifted quite a bit. Not seeing each other every day, it’s kind of wild, but it’s really wonderful. The time spent now is more poignant,” she explains.
What was once a steady but wearisome city-to-city, festival-to-festival hustle has also slowed to an intentional and meaningful pace. “Now, we play like eight shows a year. We just play the ones that mean the most and satisfy us the most, and it’s been a really wonderful shift,” Laurie says. Those gigs include playing Central Oregon’s Cascade Equinox Festival with bestie John Craigie this past September and a string of dates with the all-woman supergroup and ’90s pop cover band Sideboob, which embarked on a Pacific Northwest tour this past Halloween that was coordinated by Laurie.
“I really love being a side person, where it’s not my art upholding everybody’s livelihoods and, you know, it’s not, like, all on my shoulders,” Laurie says. “I just get to be in someone else’s band… it’s wonderful, low pressure.” She’s done this with Craigie and singer/songwriter Anna Moss, who both twins sing with on the 2024 single “Gravy.”
Solo gigs happen from time to time, but “it’s not something I’m yearning to do, because I’m so used to having a twin to perform with and harmonizing, and I definitely prefer playing with people,” Laurie tells.
This is exactly what she’ll do to kick off 2025, starting with six Shook Twins’ dates in Oregon and Washington this month. Sharing the stage with soaring Portland pop rockers Glitterfox, the sisters, per usual, will intertwine their vocals, with Katelyn playing guitar and Laurie the banjo. Longtime bandmate Niko Slice will provide additional guitar, mandolin and bass, plus Aber Miller will join on keys and bass and Alex Radakovich on drums. They’ll play Sisters’ The Belfry on Saturday, Jan. 18, and you can expect some onstage collaborations between the bands.
-Editor’s note: Due to Saturday’s sold-out show, a second Sunday matinee has been added. Catch Shook Twins and Glitterfox at The Belfry on Sunday, Jan. 19 — doors at 12pm and show at 1pm. Tickets available here.
Just before hitting the road, Shook Twins will also release the new folk-disco track called “Hand Up,” singing the refrain, “I’ll just keep my hand up and hope that someone sees me.”
“This song is like an old grade school feeling of wanting to be picked, to be recognized for something well done — balanced with the mystic of tryin’ to give zero Fs about what people think and what streaming platform playlist curators deem ‘good’ in today’s shifting landscape of how we consume and appreciate music. How does a hand get picked among 100,000 songs released per day?” Katelyn Shook writes.
“Hand Up” will be featured as part of the tour set, “and then we’re also gonna sing another new one that’s about raising a baby,” Laurie says, revealing that her sister is also expecting this year. “We recorded an album last May,” she continues. “We don’t quite have the album release plan; it’s not fully done yet. We’re just taking it real slow, just because Katelyn, you know… it’s been tricky trying to plan things around her trying to make a baby.”
For the time being, “we’re just kind of sitting on it, like a golden egg.”
Sun., Jan. 19, 12pm doors, 1pm show
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 9, 2025.
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