Pressing Strings

Hailing from Annapolis, Maryland, Pressing Strings is a powerhouse trio led by guitarist and vocalist Jordan Sokel, with a genre-bending blend of blues, rock, and folk, wrapped in soul-stirring storytelling and toe-tapping grooves. Sokel's smokey voice and intricate guitar work sit on a star rhythm section — drummer Justin Kruger and bassist Nick Welker — and all three members sing, adding harmonies reminiscent of southern California in the '70s. The band has toured the US coast to coast, headlining clubs and playing festivals including Palisade Roots and Bluegrass, FloydFest, Annapolis Baygrass, Firefly, Sweetwater 420Fest and CaveFest, and sharing the stage with Gov't Mule, Toad The Wet Sprocket, JJ Grey and Neil Francis. They supported Kitchen Dwellers on part of their fall 2025 tour, and rejoin them at the Charleston Pour House on 19 February 2027. …And I For You (2023), their seventh full-length, came out on Warren Haynes' Evil Teen Records; Minutes to Midnight followed in 2024, recorded with Steve Wright at Wrightway Studios in Baltimore, then the live record Live 2024 from the Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD. The new studio album, A Different Place, arrived on 3 September 2026 on the band's own Press Records, followed in October by a Sugarshack Sessions live-in-studio set.