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Will Stratton

@willstratton

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Realization is out today. The cover is a photo I snapped out the window somewhere around Wikieup, Arizona, driving south on 93 en route to Phoenix from Las Vegas via Nothing.

I had a new camper in tow, and had been stressed tf out about towing for the first time ever, alone, through Nevada badlands in the winter with hundreds of miles between towns.

Somewhere around Wikieup, an ease started to creep in. The landscape and temps were not as harsh. It started to feel like everything was going to be ok.

I drove all the way back to North Carolina at 50mph the whole way, not a worry in sight. I wrote Realization soon after getting back.

Realization spun out of a weird tuning I was using to play a cover of "Saying Something" by Helena Deland.. which is funny because I don't really know what it is trying to say.

I do know that it is my favorite piece I've ever written. It is short and to the point, but still explorative and expansive. It has a certain feeling that I haven't been able to quite put words to.. my best guess is it has something to do with that trip.

Recorded at @erintorg 's house with Denny and Marmo napping
Mixed by @willstratton
Mastered by @amy__dragon

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Will Stratton, 📹 @the_artist_rooster (8/19/26)

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heading out next week to support @sweetbreadsmusic on tour! playing special trio sets with @quinndevlin + @zachcalluori the whole way thru

come catch us out there
˚⊹₊˚⋅⊹₊˚⋅˚⊹₊˚⋅⊹₊˚⋅

8/19 Beacon NY - house show with @willstratton + @_chriscallahan

8/21 Burlington VT - @spiralhouse.collective with @peachykeencowboy + @daffodil11_69

8/22 Oxford MA - Folk on the Gravel with @captainmorgie_

8/23 Boston MA - @cambervillefolk house show with @norameiermusic + @mountainpeakmusik

8/24 Providence RI - @redinkpvd with @morganlanesmusic + @billbartholomew

8/25 New Haven CT - Songwriter Night hosted by @oldmilkmooney with @julietgarrett @figurinemusic

ticket/RSVP links all in my bio
seeeeeeeeee you soon 🚀

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About time we got to know the neighbors! This month’s playlist curation comes from @goldenhourgrocerystore 🛒🛒 they even included local artists @willstratton @malerie_day and @sam.evian 👀

Check out the full playlist at the link in our bio🎧

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The big day has arrived! Trippers & Askers second LP, “Tried To Do’s” is out everywhere today! Listen at the link in bio

Earlier this week, I stopped by the WCHL studios in Chapel Hill where I played a few of the songs live in the studio and had a great conversation with Aaron Keck about the album. Link in bio to read Aaron’s incise summary, and/or listen to the full conversation and performance.

While I write and sing all the songs for Trippers & Askers, the recording process is an incredibly collaborative one that shapes the songs from the inside out. Here are the folks who made it happen.

Performance

Jay Hammond - Voice, Guitars, Production
Chessa Rich - Voice, Piano
Libby Rodenbough - Voice, Fiddle
Joe Westerlund - Drums, Percussion
Matt O’Connell - Drums (Waterhole)
Casey Toll - Bass
Stephanie Coleman - Fiddle
Joseph Decosimo - Banjo
Adrian Knight - Piano, Keyboards
Matt Evans - Drums, Percussion, Synth
Greg Chudzic - Bass
Andy Stack - Engineering, Production
Michael Hammond - Engineering, Production, Mixing
Saman Khoujinian - Engineering, Sound Design

Production
Recorded at home by Jay Hammond with group sessions at:
Figure 8 Studios, March 2025, Brooklyn, NY
Stadium Heights Sound, January 2025, Durham, NC
Home of Alex Bingham, Summer 2023, Durham, NC
Big Fish, Small Pond, Summer 2022, Pittsboro, NC

Produced by Jay Hammond, Michael Hammond and Andy Stack
Mixed by Michael Hammond
Mastered by Carl Saff
All songs by Jay Hammond except “The Old Churchyard” (traditional)
©2026 simultaneities under exclusive license to Sleepy Cat Records

Cover art by Will Stratton with inspiration from the work of Rashid Johnson
Type by Gabe Anderson
Vinyl layout and design by Gabe Anderson with assets by Will Stratton
Photos by Charlie Boss

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Through a Frame / Pollen Drop is out today... musings on leaving and returning, on decade-long cycles of life, on stepping too far, and on gradually learning one’s way.

In 2014, I moved from North Carolina to Copenhagen, Denmark to learn how to build windmills. I dropped out of school in 2016, convinced that the most important thing I could do was to play guitar all day every day.

Now it is 2026. Ten years after I quit school to pursue music. I’m living back in North Carolina. I pick up my guitar a couple times a week or month. I’ve written a humble handful instrumental guitar pieces... all much less than I used to... but I feel a sense of spaciousness, ease and openness in these pieces, as if it has taken a decade for my musical expression to soften, ripen, settle in. And it has.

“Through a Frame” is the second take, and “Pollen Drop” the first. Everything you hear is live, no overdubs, and sourced in different ways from the live acoustic guitar mics. There is live re-amped and re-recorded guitar into the big church room of the Unknown studio. There are sounds from electric guitars that Eli and I layed on top of a turned-up amp, re-amping my acoustic guitar, resonating the electric guitars, and recording them through effects and pedals. We put acoustic guitars, tuned to resonate with my guitar, next to each of the four mics. I played without headphones hoping to catch some interplay with the various resonations, re-amps and effects — a true ensemble, with pushes and pulls, calls and responses, and dynamic movement, all spawned from one source.  Listen at the link in my bio, and thank you for listening <3 🙏

And of course, thank you so much to all my collaborators in this project for helping bring it to life

Recorded at Anacortes Unknown @anacortesunknownstudio
Recorded and engineered by Nich Wilbur Produced with Eli Moore @eli_guitar_and_stuff  Mixed by Will Stratton @willstratton  Mastered by Amy Dragon @amy__dragon
Music video and photo by Emma Geiger @emmageiger

Thank you and may these songs send you into the next weeks months and decades with ease and wonder <3

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Today is the one-year anniversary of an absolutely lovely house show I attended in Jamaica Plain that featured amazing performances by Adeline Hotel, Will Stratton, and Clarissa Peress, and once again, I must apologize to Preston, Andrea and Tommy for accidentally knocking over and smashing a framed photo that was hanging in your hallway. Believe it or not, I was 100 percent sober (and 100 percent clumsy). Support independent music, people!

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Last week in New York was full in every sense of the word. 🎶

Full rooms. Full hearts. Full days. Late nights. Early mornings.
 And the kind of tired that lets you know you were exactly where you were meant to be.

I knew I was packing a lot into this trip… three shows of my own, co-hosting Songs & Stories, seeing dear friends who have carried me through both the hardest and happiest seasons of life, apartment hunting with my daughter for her first post-college job, sitting for a portrait with @jessicamillerpaintings and closing it all out with my musical wingman @drewsounds @townecriercafe

Somewhere in the middle of it all, I was reminded again that the rooms I love most are the ones built on deep listening, kindness, community, and songs that mean something.

That’s the compass. That’s the work. That’s the joy.

I’m so grateful to everyone who welcomed me in, shared a stage, bought a ticket, listened closely, or simply showed up.

And massive love to my nearest and dearest who opened their homes to me, lent me a car, shuttled me around, helped me hunt for gig outfits, met me for walks, loaned me guitars and gear, played shows with me, and, as always, kept me filled up with so much love. 💗 
Now back to Indiana carrying all that good energy with me.

✨ Next up: HooMac Songwriter’s Showcase Tuesday, April 28 | 7 PM Sleeper’s Bar | Bloomington, IN
30-minute solo set

Would love to see some Indiana friends in the room. 🌾

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At the end of every Songwright show, @siobhanomalleymusic teaches the audience a part-song she wrote. Then the audience does it (with help some from cue cards!). They really killed it this time-here is “Anti-Ode to Spring” as performed by the audience at our spring show!

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It was a good night.

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It was a good night.

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