Watch Strand of Oaks cover Smashing Pumpkins and Ryan Adams at Boot and Saddle

Strand of Oaks at Boot and Saddle | Photo by John Vettese

If you did a YouTube search on Strand Of Oaks prior to 2013, you were likely to see a lot of videos of a lone Tim Showalter on stage or in a studio, chatty and engaging, wearing a guitar and possibly performing a cover. This was how Oaks got its start prior to expanding to full band status with the release of Dark Shores, and this was the Oaks we saw at Boot and Saddle this weekend for Showalter’s final shows in support of 2014’s HEAL.

For night one of the sold-out two night stand, Showalter played his breakout record in its entirety, backed by singer-songwriter Jason Anderson (of the band Tracks) on Rhodes keyboard, and introduced a few new Oaks cuts to the crowd.

Night two, however, was a  bit looser. Alongside faves from the last record and teases of the album Oaks plans to release in 2016, we heard deep cuts from his back-catalogue – “Spacestations” and “Bonfire” sounded wonderful – as well as an assortment of covers: Bruce Springsteen, Jason Molina, and a tremendous mashup of “Tonight, Tonight” by Smashing Pumpkins into “This House is Not For Sale” by Ryan Adams that turned into a full-room singalong.

Watch the Pumpkins/Adams cover and check out video of “Goshen 97” from night one below.