Strand of Oaks, Ramsay Midwood

Tim Showalter has always been something of an artistic maverick, following an itinerant creative muse wherever it may lead. “It’s so inner-referential that I never expect half my lyrics to make any sense,” he told the Chronicle in 2021. Strand of Oaks’ eighth album, Miracle Focus, offers the local songwriter’s most ambitious and divergent yet, fully sinking into swirling synths and Eighties pop riffs hinted at on previous In Heaven, but shaded by ambient explorations and a tension between meditative revelation and cathartic bliss. Ramsay Midwood opens, slinging his swampy psychedelic blues guitar grooves. – Doug Freeman