Will Stratton and Trippers & Askers

Will Stratton is a songwriter and guitarist born in California’s Central Valley and living in New York’s Hudson Valley. His eighth LP, Points of Origin, is a sprawling concept album, telling a story about intensifying California wildfires, intergenerational nostalgia, and human connection. It came out on March 7th on Bella Union (worldwide) and Ruination Records (USA). His previous albums, 2021’s The Changing Wilderness and 2017’s Rosewood Almanac, received critical acclaim from Sir Elton John, Alexis Petridis (The Guardian), and journalists at Pitchfork, Mojo, Guitarist, and Uncut, among others. Collaborators have included Hannah Frances, Cassandra Jenkins, The Weather Station, and Ben Seretan.

Trippers & Askers is the folk / spiritual jazz project of musician, sound artist, educator and researcher Jay Hammond. The group’s latest album Acorn takes inspiration from Octavia Butler’s immersive and frighteningly prescient novel Parable of the Sower. As an intertextual work, Acorn brings together a wide array of collaborators that include members of Wye Oak, Califone, former Sun Ra member Ken Moshesh and comic artist John Jennings to explore the book’s narrative as it pertains to the very real political and emotional challenges of the present. The album was called “a shimmering homage to nature” by The Guardian.

Glasgow’s own Cormac Nagle will be opening the evening. He blends an understated vocal drawl with timeworn melodies, uplifted by a singular, surrealistic lyrical voice. He has played shows across the UK, supporting international touring artists such as Ryley Walker, Andrew Combs, Dylan Earl, and Julianna Riolino. He has also garnered airplay on BBC Introducing and Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue’s Another Country show on BBC Radio Scotland. 2024 saw him release the singles Slept (Five More Minutes) and Cold Hand In Mine and play across the country, including a run of Scottish dates with award winning songwriter and author Wesley Stace (John Wesley Harding). 2025 has seen him join Jeffrey Martin on a UK tour, with a new batch of songs to be released later in the year.