MY FIRSTS 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.). For this My Firsts we talk to Timothy Showalter of Strand of Oaks.

Showalter is the main creative force behind Strand of Oaks. He was born in Goshen, Indiana in 1982, but for a while he has been based in Philadelphia, PA. He’s been through a lot in his 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, , he tackled his wife once having an affair while he was away on tour). There were more demons to face before he could begin recording his new album, . Showalter found himself crippled with self-doubt and convinced he would never write another song. Concerned for his own wellbeing, he took a trip to the