By now, you may have heard about the tragic story of Timothy Showalter a.k.a. Strand of Oaks losing all his belongings in a fire at the same time his fiancé had decided to leave him, which helped inspire Showalter to write songs for his last album Leave Ruin (La Société Expéditionnaire) with an acoustic guitar on a suburban Philly park bench that he was living on. Well, those days may seem like a distant memory to him now that he lives here in Philly happily married to the love of his life, and his latest album Pope Killdragon (released on eMusic) has been getting some serious blogosphere love. What can we say? We can’t help but root for the guy. He’s a survivor and a helluva songwriter. That’s why we had to invite Strand of Oaks to The Deli’s CMJ Showcase tomorrow night (Oct. 21) at The Living Room. We also took the opportunity to pick his brain. You can see what we found here.