William Eaton

William Eaton sees his music as a conversation and communion with nature. He began his creative journey in the early 1970s while living in the deserts of Arizona, sleeping outside, walking for hours in bare feet, and primarily subsisting on food from the earth. In these years, he would perform improvised guitar music outside for hours on end until friends convinced him to record and release an album. This resulted in Music By William Eaton with 18 spontaneous, untitled songs. It falls somewhere between John Fahey and Robbie Basho’s American Primitive guitar playing and Laraaji’s washes of autoharp to create a gorgeous, enveloping sound. In the decades that have followed, William has become a Grammy-nominated musician and acclaimed instrument builder at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. He attracts students from around the world to learn his process of creating highly unique guitars out of trees with as many as 26 strings.