Will Stratton

Will Stratton is an American singer-songwriter and composer whose work bridges the gap between traditional fingerstyle folk and modern classical composition. Born in 1987 and based in the Hudson River Valley, Stratton emerged in the mid-2000s as a prodigiously talented guitarist. His debut, What the Night Said, featured Sufjan Stevens, signaling his arrival within the Brooklyn-adjacent indie-folk scene. However, Stratton's trajectory was uniquely shaped by his studies at Bennington College, where he focused on academic composition and the works of Morton Feldman. This influence manifests in his music through a rigorous attention to silence, timbre, and non-linear song structures.

His career arc is marked by resilience and evolution, notably continuing to record and release music like Gray Lodge Wisdom following a diagnosis of Stage 3 cancer in 2012. Critically, he is often compared to Nick Drake due to his hushed vocal delivery and technical guitar proficiency, but his work is more harmonically adventurous, often utilizing open tunings and complex counterpoint. Signed to Bella Union, he occupies a space as a 'musician's musician,' respected for his technical mastery and his ability to maintain a high-fidelity, intimate recording aesthetic that emphasizes the physical properties of his instruments.