Strand of Oaks

Folk / Indie

Wilkes-Barre, PA

Billboard

A Hoosier transplanted to the coal highlands of Northeast Pennsylvania, Timothy Showalter has nested in fertile musical soil. Taking cues from luminaries such as Nebraska-Era Bruce Springsteen and a burgeoning Neil Young, Showalter extends a musical gesture and searches to find modesty in the midst of confusion, addressing insecurities and settling existential debt with a simple and beautiful delivery. The personification of a midwestern Grandfather's advice, his songs smack with hard truth and poignant severity.

Strand of Oaks accompanied Jason Anderson on a US tour as a fledgling musical outfit, with Greg Gover on keys and Thomas Abrams on drums. This incarnation of Oaks performed double-duty by also acting as Anderson's backing-band, "The Rippers". Armed with only CDR demos, they joined Kimya Dawson for a tour of the UK.

2006 has brought the first proper Strand of Oaks release, a split 7" vinyl record with Dragon Turtle on the La Société Expéditionnaire imprint, supported by a Northeast US tour with Lewis & Clarke and a string of Mid-Atlantic dates. Now, in between teaching second graders and painting on cardboard scraps, Showalter and La Société Expéditionnaire prepare the finishing touches to Leave Ruin, the debut full-legnth album expected Summer 2007.