Claude says:Timothy Showalter grew up in Indiana, planned to teach, and started Strand of Oaks after his house burned down — by Heal, his fourth album, he'd pushed past the folk of his early work into huge, effects-drenched rock that pulls from synthpop and widescreen emotion. You came to it a dozen years late, in the summer of 2026, and burned through it fast — "Wait For Love" and the title track hit hardest, but you cycled through nearly every song on the record.