Its next single, “Ruby,” which was shared via a video that was made up of home movie footage captured by his father (Jeff Showalter) on a video camera when he was a child, was also our #1 Song of the Week. Eraserland‘s first single, and opening track, “Weird Ways,” was our #1 Song of the Week. To paraphrase the title of the latest album by Andrew Bird, released the same day as Eraserland, this might be Showalter’s finest work yet. The majority of My Morning Jacket (Broemel, Bo Koster, Patrick Hallahan, and Tom Blankenship) back-up Showalter on Eraserland, which also features Jason Isbell and Emma Ruth Rundle. Then the album was recorded in Louisville in April 2017. So Showalter got to writing and demoing the new album in February 2017, alone in Wildwood, NJ. His buddies in My Morning Jacket, especially Carl Broemel, heard Showalter was in a bad way and offered their assistance in recording the next Strand of Oaks album, that they could be his backing band. Concerned for his own wellbeing, he took a trip to the Jersey Shore, in what a press release announcing the album described as a “spiritual pilgrimage.” It was then that some of his friends came to his aid. Showalter found himself crippled with self-doubt and convinced he would never write another song. There were more demons to face before he could begin recording his new album, Eraserland. He’s been through a lot in his near 37 years of life (including once having his house burn down and surviving a potentially deadly car crash with his wife Sue) and hasn’t shied away from baring his soul in song (for example, on “Mirage Year,” on his 2014 breakthrough album, HEAL, he tackled his wife once having an affair while he was away on tour). He was born in Goshen, Indiana in 1982, but for awhile he has been based in Philadelphia, PA. Showalter is the main creative force behind Strand of Oaks. For this My Firsts we talk to Timothy Showalter of Strand of Oaks. My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.).
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