Strand of Oaks Announces New Album with Release of its Opening Track, “Weird Ways”

Music News Strand of Oaks
Strand of Oaks Announces New Album with Release of its Opening Track, “Weird Ways”

Strand of Oaks (aka Timothy Showalter) has announced the release of his sixth studio album Eraserland, due out March 22 from Dead Oceans. With the announcement, Showalter has also premiered the new album’s opening track and lead single, “Weird Ways.”

The forthcoming album was made in collaboration with My Morning Jacket members Carl Broemel, Bo Koster, Patrick Hallahan and Tom Blankenship, who are said to have “played a crucial role” in its creation, per a press release. It was Broemel who encouraged an initially apprehensive and mentally exhausted Showalter back into the studio. Recorded live with Showalter and the MMJ crew at La La Land Studios in Louisville, Ky., and produced by Kevin Ratterman, Eraserland is a testament to Showalter’s emotional endurance through a personally tumultuous time.

The classic-rock influenced “Weird Ways” introduces the album’s initial headspace with the declaration from Showalter, “I don’t feel it anymore / Somehow I see clearer than before.” The song utilizes that momentum and transforms it into one about perseverance through self-doubt. In its context, the lead single provides a breath of relief within Showalter’s consistently honest and raw emotional confessions that resides across his back catalog.

Showalter said of the anxiety and uncertainty that fueled the creation of Eraserland in a statement, “When I was writing these songs, every day I would walk on the beach and I was completely alone and overwhelmed by fear … but then I realized how there really aren’t any rules for who you are, who you’ll become, or who you think you need to be. Eraserland is just that. It’s death to ego, and rebirth to anything or anyone you want to be.”

Get a glimpse of the recording process with the video for “Weird Ways” and listen to Strand of Oaks’ 2010 Daytrotter Session below. You can also see the dates of the band’s upcoming tour in support of the new album further down, and revisit Showalter’s recent interview of Broemel for Paste right here.

Eraserland Album Art:

Eraserland Tracklist:
01. Weird Ways
02. Hyperspace Blues
03. Keys
04. Visions
05. Final Fires
06. Moon Landing
07. Ruby
08. Wild and Willing
09. Eraserland
10. Forever Chords

Strand of Oaks Tour Dates:

April
10 – Wilkes-Barre, Pa. @ FM Kirby Center
11 – Washington, D.C. @ U Street Music Hall
12 – Durham, N.C. @ Motorco Music Hall
13 – Atlanta, Ga. @ The Earl
14 – Birmingham, Ala. @ Saturn
16 – Austin, Texas @ Antone’s
17 – Dallas, Texas @ Three Links
19 – Santa Fe, N.M. @ Meow Wolf
20 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Valley Bar
22 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Teragram Ballroom
23 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Independent
25 – Portland, Ore. @ Mississippi Studios
26 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos
27 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Biltmore Cabaret
28 – Spokane, Wash. @ The Bartlett

May
01 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Turf Club
02 – Madison, Wisc. @ High Noon Saloon
03 – Chicago, Ill. @ Lincoln Hall
04 – Indianapolis, Ind. @ The Hi-Fi
06 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Beachland Tavern
07 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Club Cafe
08 – Boston, Mass. @ Sinclair
09 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Union Transfer
24 – Berlin, Germany @ Privatclub
25 – Utrecht, Amsterdam @ TivoliVredenburg
26 – Antwerp, Belgium @ TRIX
27 – London, U.K. @ Omeara

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