Strand of Oaks – Bandwidth

Strand Of Oaks: Tiny Desk Concert

Bob Boilen — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 10:10:41 +0000

Strand Of Oaks‘ music is filled with bite and sometimes regret, but also a good deal of warmth. Neil Young is an obvious touchstone when the loud guitar solos kick in, but so is Jason Molina. In fact, the late Ohio singer-songwriter was the subject of the song that became my hook into the music of Strand Of Oaks; it’s a song Timothy Showalter sings here at the Tiny Desk that can also be found on his 2014 album HEAL; it’s called “JM.”

I was an Indiana kid, gettin’ no one in my bed

I had your sweet tunes to play

I was staring at the map, feeling fire in my head

I had your sweet tunes to play

I was mean to my dad, ’cause I was mean to myself

I had your sweet tunes to play

Stealing smokes in my car, with the windows way down

I had your sweet tunes to play, your sweet tunes to play

Showalter’s words and life experiences — a bad relationship, a house that burned down — suggest a dark, even bitter, undercurrent. But when he drove alone in his van down from Philly and arrived at NPR here in D.C., he popped out after his drive with a warm smile and three guitars, one for each of the songs he’d play. We quickly bonded in the parking garage over our identical buckled Frye boots and love for vintage synthesizers. He turned out to be a sweetheart, and hearing these amazing songs with just him and a guitar was a treat to behold.

Set List

“Goshen ’97”
“Plymouth”
“JM”

Credits

Producers: Bob Boilen, Maggie Starbard; Editor: Morgan Walker; Audio Engineer: Brian Jarboe; Videographers: Colin Marshall, Maggie Starbard; Assistant Producer: Rachel Horn; photo by Maggie Starbard/NPR

Public Radio’s 10 Breakout Artists Of 2014

NPR Staff — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:20:07 +0000

Public radio hosts spend much of their time sifting through overflowing mail bins and inboxes as they hunt for as-yet-unknown musicians worth sharing. Their stations frequently help vault new artists to national success.

With that in mind, we asked our partner stations to tell us about their favorite musical discoveries of the year. The results include everything from a metamodern country singer to a heartsick Toronto surf-pop band, not to mention a whole lot of love for impressively viral Irish singer-songwriter Hozier. Read on for 10 hosts’ picks for the artists who broke out in 2014.

KEXP Presents: Strand Of Oaks

Jim Beckmann — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:11:00 +0000

Music has always provided catharsis, relief and healing. But few artists tap directly into that power the way Tim Showalter has: His Strand Of Oaks project goes so far as to name its most recent album Heal. Like pages from a diary, the Philly songwriter’s lyrics delve into moments of crisis, frustration and, ultimately, inspiration that couldn’t be more true to life. These are, after all, Showalter’s own stories — basically “comic-book origin stories,” as he says in his insightful interview with Morning Show‘s John Richards.

Most importantly, Showalter’s pull-no-punches approach on Heal‘s muscular and anthemic — and, yes, healing — songs turns his moments into ours, making it hard not to relate to his every word.

SET LIST

“Shut In”

Watch the rest of Strand Of Oaks’ performance on KEXP’s YouTube channel.

Strand Of Oaks On World Cafe

WXPN-FM Staff — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:21:42 +0000

“There’s zero symbolism, and that’s the scary thing,” Timothy Showalter says. “Every single lyric is either a direct thought or a direct event. It’s exactly my life.”

The Philly musician who performs under the name Strand of Oaks is talking about his new album, HEAL, which in a way functions as a memoir. Fueled by a string of tragic personal incidents, from infidelity to a near-fatal auto accident, the album brings these events to life, from the teenage isolation of “Goshen 97” (a track featuring J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.) to the bittersweet romance of “Plymouth.”

With his knockout band, the songs trace paths through anthemic rock, electronic pop and distortion-pedal-laden slow-burners. Showalter says the album title should be read in all-caps: “It’s a command,” he says. “I’m yelling it at myself.”

Hear live performances of Strand of Oaks’ songs on this episode of World Cafe.

First Listen: Strand Of Oaks, ‘Heal’

Andy Beta — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 23:03:00 +0000

Philadelphia’s Timothy Showalter has never been one to shy from a complicated metaphor in conveying his pathos. Take “Daniel’s Blues” off his 2010 album made as Strand of Oaks, Pope Killdragon, where he voices actor Dan Aykroyd after the death of John Belushi, exacting revenge on the drug dealer responsible for his friend’s death with a shotgun and signing on for Ghostbusters. All of this gets told in Showalter’s dark yet ethereal folk. Another album featured songs set in a post-apocalyptic world.

From the title to the bracing opening moments of “Goshen 97,” Strand of Oaks’ latest album, Heal, is decidedly more direct and immediate. With blasts of overdriven guitars (courtesy of Dinosuar Jr.‘s J. Mascis) and drums, “Goshen 97” is a glorious paean to teenhood. Furtively smoking menthols in his bedroom and singing Smashing Pumpkins in the mirror, Showalter also sings a song of himself, of how he came to love his muse via his dad’s old tape machine. “That’s where the magic began/I was lonely/but I was having fun,” he howls.

Rather than rely on fantasy and the fantastical for his songs and sound, Showalter’s gaze here is a sober (and sobering) one. The ten songs that comprise Heal had their genesis in personal crisis, with Showalter’s marriage crumbling apart while he was thousands of miles from home on an endless tour. Upon his return home, he took a personal inventory, using the songwriting process as catharsis.

The title track echoes fellow singer/songwriter Sharon Van Etten‘s “Give Up” (from her 2012 album Tramp) as he details his own struggles with alcohol and the other perils of life on the road, finally reaching the catharsis on the chorus of “You gotta heal!” And while Showalter’s lyrics have peeled back to the most raw and elemental of details, now he adds more musical layers. Gone is the skeletal American folk of previous Strand of Oaks’ albums. Heal instead favors a hefty classic rock sound, full of thundering drums, glints of synthesizer and soaring guitar lines that lead into anthemic hooks.

Showalter namechecks not just his peer Van Etten but also the late Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia and The Magnolia Electric Co., who died from complications due to alcoholism last year. In interviews, Showalter says he met Molina just once, but the heart of Heal resides in the brooding seven-minute ode to him entitled “JM.” It’s a slow burn that brings to mind Neil Young‘s “Cortez the Killer,” careening from hushed reverence and remembrance in the verses to searing guitar cri de coeur at the chorus. By song’s end, Showalter gleans that defiant aspect of Molina’s songcraft: “I won’t let these dark times win/We got your sweet tunes to play.” In considering the excellence of Strand of Oaks’ Heal, it’s easy to hear how it might serve as curative to a new generation of songwriters.