Squirrel Flower – Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going
Squirrel Flower, the project of beloved Chicago-based artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ella Williams, announces her fourth studio album, Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going, out August 21st via Polyvinyl Record Co. and releases the lead single/video, “Reelin.”
Commenting on “Reelin,” Williams says, “the lyrics started as an art piece I made on an overdue Kansas Turnpike toll bill. This song is my ode to the push and pull of domesticity and unraveling. Leaving and getting reeled back in, over and over and over and over.”
She continues: “This video was born from serendipity and divine timing. There was a huge storm at the time Clay, Jackson and I had planned to shoot in this industrial area I’d been scoping out, and we called the shoot off. At the last minute, I looked at the sky and decided it’d be worth trying. We pulled up to the spot just as the clouds were breaking and a gorgeous double rainbow shot across the sky out of the sparkling city. The other footage is from the Indiana dunes, referencing many performance art videos I’ve made of myself playing accordion with the dunes and factories in the background.”
If a throughline exists in the decade of Squirrel Flower’s repertoire, it’s a projection of time and place. A “Squirrel Flower song” is, if anything, a snapshot of Williams’ feelings in a given moment, extrapolated into a character, or a train of thought, or a (super)natural phenomenon. Williams describes each song on Say A Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going as a living archive of a moment or a place, given the space to live on its own outside of the forceful progression of time.
Spanning 2024 and 2025, the writing process for Say A Prayer is an account of the locations and the characters Williams encountered as she traveled across vast American biomes. Tracked live at makeshift studio Merry Meadow in Door County, WI with a cast of Chicago music heads including co-producers Seth Engel and Jack Henry, and later painstakingly refined and rerecorded to perfection in Asheville, NC by Alex Farrar (MJ Lenderman, Wednesday, Waxahatchee) at his Drop of Sun studios, Say a Prayer’s production mirrors its songwriting process. Farrar, a producer known for a prolific indie rock sound, surprised Williams by amplifying the quietest, most delicate aspects of her music. “He was encouraging me to lean into this ethereal, yet grounded, spacious yet textured folk music that’s so true to the early days of Squirrel Flower,” Williams states. The recording captures Williams’ voice with newfound clarity; she has never sounded so much like herself. In addition to Dave Hartley (The War on Drugs) and Seth Kauffman (Angel Olsen), both of whom played on Williams’ 2023 album Tomorrow’s Fire, Williams enlisted a cast of friends including Dimitri Giannopolous (Horse Jumper of Love), Sofia Jensen (Free Range), Clay Frankel (Twin Peaks), Andy Krull (Red PK), Book not Brooke (Babywave), and even family members Jameson, Jesse, and Nate Williams.
In many ways, Say a Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going is about itself, about the process of its creation on the road. That isn’t to say that Say a Prayer is a travelogue. It’s more of a bittersweet testament to exploration and self possession, longing and musing. Vividly personal, it’s like a set of abandoned scrapbooks filled with ephemera, harvested from the side of the dusty freeway by some highway woman over her decades, piled up in a banker’s box in a backyard shed, tenuously protected from a desert monsoon. Past experiences lovingly chronicled, the future remains open for Williams as she hopes for a sign to help her know when to get going and when to stay still.
Squirrel Flower recently announced her first full-band headlining tour in two years, kicking off this fall. Currently, Squirrel Flower is touring in support of The Beths and Spoon, and in August, she will support Ethel Cain in Chicago.
Squirrel Flower 2026 Tour Dates (headline dates in bold):
Tue. Jun. 16 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground #
Wed. Jun. 17 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle # [SOLD OUT]
Thu. Jun. 18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle # [SOLD OUT]
Sun. Jun. 21 – New Haven, CT @ College St Music Hall $
Tue. Jun. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore $ [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Jun. 24 – Baltimore, MD @ Nevermore Music Hall $ [SOLD OUT]
Fri. Jun. 26 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore $ [SOLD OUT]
Sat. Jun. 27 – Cleveland, OH @ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame $
Sun. Jun. 28 – Columbus, OH @ KEMBA Live! $
Tue. Jun. 30 – Newport, KY @ MegaCorp Pavilion $
Wed. Jul. 1 – Louisville, KY @ Iroquois Amphitheater $
Sun. Aug. 2 – Chicago, IL @ Metro ! [SOLD OUT]
Wed. Sept. 23 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop =
Thu. Sept. 24 – Toronto, ON @ Second Summer Festival
Fri. Sept. 25 – Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea (POP Montreal Festival)
Sat. Sept. 26 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre =
Sun. Sept. 27 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse =
Tue. Sept. 29 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere – Rooftop*
Wed. Sept. 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s*
Thu. Oct. 1 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage*
Fri. Oct. 2 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall*
Sat. Oct. 3 – Durham, NC @ Stanczyks*
Tue. Oct. 6 – Asheville, NC @ Revival*
Wed. Oct. 7 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl*
Thu. Oct. 8 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records – Blue Room*
Sat. Oct. 10 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Turntable*
Fri. Oct. 23 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway +
Sat. Oct. 24 – Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse +
Sun. Oct. 25 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge +
Tue. Oct. 27 – Dallas, TX @ Ruins +
Wed. Oct. 28 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger +
Thu. Oct. 29 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall Upstairs +
Fri. Oct. 30 – Austin, TX @ 29th Street Ballroom +
Sun. Nov. 1 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar +
Tue. Nov. 3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Sid the Cat Auditorium +
Wed. Nov. 4 – Ojai, CA @ Ojai Deer Lodge +
Thu. Nov. 5 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel +
Sat. Nov. 7 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern +
Sun. Nov. 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall +
Mon. Nov. 9 – Olympia, WA @ Wild Child +
Wed. Nov. 11 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater +
Thu. Nov. 12 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux +
Fri. Nov. 13 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge +
Sun. Nov. 15 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall +
Tue. Nov. 17 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb +
Wed. Nov. 18 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line Music Cafe +
Thu. Nov. 19 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club +
Fri. Nov. 20 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall +
# supporting The Beths
$ supporting Spoon + The Beths
! supporting Ethel Cain
= w/ youbet
* w/ Dari Bay
+ w/ Sour Widows
#squirrelflower