After nearly a decade plugging away with different musical projects and personal tragedy, Strand of Oaks, (better known as the moniker of Timothy Showalter) has found something more than redemption with his latest release Heal and packed the house this past Thursday at Great Scott. Visibly shaken in between songs by the full room upon his first headlining gig in the Bean, Showalter proclaimed that he “played Great Scott about ten years ago.” With what project I’m not sure, but after seeing this set I think he’ll definitely need a bigger room when he returns.

First off, I have to give props to a friend of mine for introducing me to Strand of Oaks literally hours before the show. However, what he described as a folk-rock act was truly much more. Strand of Oaks is a burning fire of truly honest and emotional lyrics, with dynamic genre-crossing music doesn’t trap them in grimness or with a bleakness but instead lifts them up in a truly religious way that makes his entire catalog of material compelling. Right now he’s still wonderfully obscure, but I doubt for long as Heal brings out the best in Showalter and appears to be the first record that was made from something more than a cathartic objective. It shows an inspiring evolution of a starving artist who has had his first taste of critically acclaimed success and capitalized on it with a hypnotic and fresh recording that transposed perfectly to the live setting.

He opened with “Satellite Moon” from his last release Dark Shores, which eased the band in. From there the new material began with the title track off Heal. This post-punk thumper showed off the crisp veteran musicianship of the band and moved along with a progressive 80’s beat. Then “Goshen 97’,” probably the most radio friendly song off Heal rocked the house, but was missing the lead guitar work that J. Mascis provides on the record. “For Me” showed off some crafty guitar work and began to highlight how great of a songwriter Showalter is with dark repetitively echoed lyrics “the sun fell right out of the sky….for me,” reaching a vocal peak that captured the crowd. “JM” was an ode to Neil Young’s “Madman Across the Water” but was pulled off so well you forget that and appreciated their take more with the chorus-less rephrase of  “I had your sweet tunes” at the end of each gut wrenching verse . He took a mid-set solo acoustic break-down with some older folkier material that let the set breathe and have a nice peak and valley. You were officially on Showalter’s journey now. “Shut In” brought the band back out and had hints of Waren Zevon and once again proved that this guy can craft great songs. This song is bound to be in a major motion flick and I’ll applaud when I hear it knowing this dude got paid. He deserves it. He’s a real rock and roll warrior. A fuzzy synth ballad “Wait for Love” closed the set with haunting piano and some great help on harmonies from his band-mates and has potential to be a follow up single despite being the last track on the record. And to his astonishment, Showalter was called out for an encore to which he said, “I’m not used to this” and broke into another heartbreaking slow-burn rocker “Mirage” to cap off the night.

In the end, Strand of Oaks is a band, or I guess a man, that you will just fall in love with upon seeing. The passion and sincerity of Showalter’s lyrics and overall musicianship is something that makes you feel warm and want to root for him. In a musical age when there are so many acts presenting themselves under monikers of the artists imagination, Strand of Oaks is a very real, very authentic musician who is not trying to be anybody else but himself  in pouring out his heart and soul into the words and music. As a as result, he has created an incredibly inspiring and retrospective record, and puts on a similar live show, that captures all the emotions and roller coaster peaks and valleys of life and the human condition as only a man who has lived his life could.