Will Stratton

Known for his intimate, intricate approach, singer/songwriter and guitarist Will Stratton is a self-professed disciple of Nick Drake. Sometimes recording solo but more often incorporating guests on accompaniment like strings and a light rhythm section on his albums, he tracked his full-length debut, 2007's What the Night Said, with collaborators at the age of 18. Highlights of subsequent releases included 2012's Post-Empire and his Bella Union label debut, 2017's Rosewood Almanac. Stratton's seventh album, The Changing Wilderness, saw him shift focus from inward-looking to outward-examining in 2021. Having taken piano lessons from the age of four, California-born, New Jersey-raised Will Stratton later picked up the acoustic guitar and began composing before he entered high school. He recorded his first album, What the Night Said, in the months between high school and college in 2005. Featuring a number of guests, including an appearance by Sufjan Stevens on oboe, and Stratton himself on over a half-dozen instruments, it was released in mid-2007. In the meantime, he enrolled at the University of Puget Sound, then transferred to Bennington College, where he studied music composition with Allen Shawn. Following the strictly solo EP Vile Bodies in September 2009, Stratton's second album, that November's No Wonder, saw him reunite in the studio with What the Night Said drummer/co-producer Kieran Kelly. Among its other guests was guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan. The following year, the sparer, self-recorded New Vanguard Blues showcased Stratton's increasingly agile fingerstyle technique. His next two albums, 2012's Post-Empire and 2014's Gray Lodge Wisdom were released by French label Talitres Records. Musicians on the latter included select members of Brooklyn chamber ensemble yMusic. Around this time, Stratton left his home of several years, New York City, for upstate New York, where he found temporary work teaching fine arts at a boarding school after recovering from a bout with cancer. He never stopped making music, however, and signed with Bella Union for his sixth long-player, Rosewood Almanac. Named after his guitar, it arrived in mid-2017. When The Changing Wilderness followed in 2021, it took a less introspective viewpoint than Stratton had ever displayed before, instead questioning human nature.
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