I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: December 7, 2018] Strand of Oaks

In 2016, Timothy Showalter played his second Strand of Oaks Winter Classic at Boot and Saddle.  I had a really great time.  Then I saw him and his full band later the next year at a bigger venue.  I more or less felt that I didn’t need to go to the winter classic again this year.  But thinking of how much fun it was (and the fact that Carl Broemel was opening) was a huge incentive.  Now I’ve been to one night of his second and fourth Winter Classics.

Showalter came up on stage and Broemel came with him.   Showalter is such a warm and gregarious person and you can see that he is genuinely happy to be there.  He was smiling pretty much for the whole show.

Although I like Strand of Oaks newer album Hard Love, I really like the previous album Heal.  So it was pretty awesome that he played the majority of songs from Heal. In fact. the first three songs were from that album

For a few songs Broemel played lead guitar while Showalter played rhythm and sang.  And the two guitarists took the opportunity to do some great jamming together.  Broemel also played pedal steel (which was really cool) for a couple of songs.

Showalter told us that before he even started recording music, he used to drive a bus in Wilkes Barre (he was also a second grade teacher at the time).  He remembered many a cold day, trying to get that bus started in the dark morning and the only thing that got him going was playing My Morning Jacket’s Z album.  And now he had the guitarist for My Morning Jacket playing on stage with him and they were friends.  It was pretty cool.  And seeing the look on Showalters’ face when he and Broemel of their soloed was a major highlight.  A happy musician is a wonderful thing.

They opened with “Shut In” and it was very cool to watch Showalter sing lead on the song and then sort of play down his guitar part to let Broemel shine for a solo.  They followed that with “Plymouth” and an amazingly stretched out and aching rendition of “JM.”  Broemel played pedal steel on it.  It was devastating.

I wasn’t sure if he played “JM” every night so this felt very special.  (He does, but it was still awesome).

Then he played a new song, which I didn’t catchy the title of. Then Carl left and Showalter sang “Everything” solo.  Last time I was there, he gave a shout out to his wife because it was her birthday.  This time she came up to sing an old song, “Kill Dragon.”

He called both Carl and Joe Pug up on stage and they sand Pug’s song “Nation of Heat.”   That’s when he told that when he opened for Pug many years ago, Pug invited him up on stage and they played a Strand song together.  He couldn’t believe the generosity and he wanted to repay the favor.  It was my favorite Joe Pug song of the night.

Then he did the same thing for Carl Broemel.  Carl sang lead on his song Dark Matter and Showalter sang backing vocals.

They continued with covers with all three of them performing a terrific version of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.”  Showalter had  the lyrics out on stage, he was so afraid of messing it up but the crowd was there to sing along at full volume for him.

After the Hard Love song “Rest of It,” they played another cover.  He said he usually doesn’t like to do the same covers two nights in a row but it worked so well that they wanted to do it again.  It was  an amazing version of Beck’s “The Golden Age.”  It sounded fantastic..

It seems like the Winter Classic should last until 2 in the morning, but Boot & Saddle has a very strict 11PM curfew.  And with two opening acts that means a fairly short set.  But it didn’t feel short.  The song choices were great.  The soloing was long a dynamic.  The camaraderie was infectious and the crowd was really unto it.

So even though it was the last song, when they started playing the opening to “Goshen 97” the crowd went nuts.  All three of them rocked out and the whole crowd sang along. It was awesome.

On my way out, Showalter was standing there talking to everyone.  I told him how much the previous Winter Classic meant to me and how happy I was to be at this one.  The line had dwindled so I talked for a few minutes about his teacher and about Wilkes Barre.  He was super friendly.

I hope I can go to the Winter Classic in 2019, it’s a fun tradition and I’m happy to be a part of it.

SETLIST

1. Shut In *
2. Plymouth *
3. JM *
4. Weird Ways (live debut)
5. Everything
6. Wait for Love
7. Kill Dragon [with Tim’s wife Sue]
8. Nation of Heat [Joe Pug cover] **
9. Dark Matter [Carl Broemel cover] **
10. Comfortably Numb [Pink Floyd cover] **
11. Rest of It **
12. The Golden Age [Beck cover] **
13. Goshen ’97 **

* performed with Carl Broemel
** performed with Carl Broemel and Joe Pug