See Strand of Oaks Perform ‘Ruby’ With Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires on ‘Colbert’
Strand of Oaks assembled a special cast of collaborators, including Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires, to perform the new single “Ruby” on Wednesday night’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The emotive garage-rock tune comes from the new album Eraserland, which will be released on March 22nd via Dead Oceans.
An evolving indie rock outfit, Strand of Oaks is the main vehicle for the songs of Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter Timothy Showalter, who also brought Bo Koster and Tom Blankenship of My Morning Jacket and Centro-matic’s Will Johnson for the late-night TV appearance. Led by Showalter’s deep vocals and jangly strumming, the song gains Fleetwood Mac-style swagger thanks to the honeyed harmonies of Shires, who also adds sweetly measured fiddle accents. Meanwhile, Isbell hangs in the background and delivers some soaring electric guitar fills.
Isbell, Koster and Blankenship, as well as additional My Morning Jacket members Carl Broemel and Patrick Hallahan, all appear on Eraserland, the follow-up to 2017’s Hard Love and the companion album Harder Love, which came out last year. As part of South by Southwest, Strand of Oaks next perform at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion in Spicewood, Texas, on March 14th and at the Scoot Inn in Austin on March 15th.