Willie Stratton

For more than a decade now, Willie Stratton has been building his good name on stellar sonic shape-shifting. The Halifax-based song singer has proven time and again that he can dive into any of rock ‘n’ roll’s various iterations—heartsick blues, twanged-up country, hip-shaking rockabilly, groovy surf, anything and everything in between—and emerge, again, as a maestro of the style. But on his new long-player, Stratton seeks synthesis: Drugstore Dreamin’ finds him playing alchemist, melting down the myriad sounds he’s mastered over the years to create singular sonic gold. As Stratton deftly weaves and mixes musical forms, Drugstore Dreamin’s intoxicating concoction brings his timeless songwriting to the forefront and has garnered him a 2022 Music Nova Scotia Award for Americana Album of the Year, and a nomination for the ECMA Country Recording of the Year in 2023.