Steve Martin and the Board of The Steve Martin Banjo Prize have announced two winners for this year’s prize. Building on the Board’s mission to recognize excellence across the spectrum of banjo styles, this year’s recipients represent excellence in both clawhammer and 5-string bluegrass banjo styles.

Steve Martin will introduce viewers to the winners on December 17th at 5.30PM EDT on the Deering Banjo Company’s livestream show Deering Live broadcasting on their YouTube channel. Martin comments: "The acknowledgement of these unique and talented musicians continues to thrill me."

It’s been a busy stretch for young banjo phenom Tray Wellington, whose 2022 full-length debut, Black Banjo, drew attention from roots music observers ranging from Bluegrass Today and No Depression to the Wall Street Journal.

Black music lies at the heart of most American roots music, but a century of erasure has obscured the origins of the music today. Now four brilliant musicians, each visionaries in their own right, are re-centering Black traditions in string band music. New Dangerfield brings together Afrofuturist fiddler Jake Blount with composer, songwriter, and old-time banjo player Kaia Kater, bluegrass banjo iconoclast Tray Wellington, and powerfully versatile bassist Nelson Williams.

Following the pointed, foreboding mood and expansive instrumentation of his take on John Hiatt’s “Lift Up Every Stone,” Mountain Home Music Company’s Tray Wellington returns to the newgrass instrumental side of the street with his latest single, “Blue Collared Dog and His Green Eyed Friend” — and if the title seems idiosyncratic, the explanation for it reveals something about the banjo player’s creative process:

Having surpassed a milestone 10th year in operation this January, Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC will resume celebrations with the return of its annual Center Stage Concert Series.

For his first release of 2024, Mountain Home Music Company’s Tray Wellington has chosen once again to challenge assumptions by applying his unique artistic perspective to a song from beyond the musical realm in which his instrument — the 5-string banjo — is usually found.

Following last year’s album, Black Banjo, and this spring’s inspired cover of Kid Cudi’s massive hip-hop hit, “Pursuit of Happiness,” Tray Wellington returns with “Moon in Motion 1,” an original instrumental that solidifies his reputation as not just a masterful banjo player, but as a composer—and as the leader of a band capable of making their own contributions to a unique sound.

Already well into a busy touring season that includes high-profile performances from Tahoe’s Winter Wondergrass to upstate New York’s Grey Fox festival, banjo phenom Tray Wellington is back with his first new music since last summer’s acclaimed Black Banjo (Mountain Home Music Company) — and for the first time, he’s got his band with him.

Releasing his first singles for Mountain Home Music Company; appearing on David Holt’s State Of Music series on PBS; signing with boutique booking agency Prater Day; earning coverage in publications such as The Bluegrass Situation, No Depression and Folk Alley; being interviewed by roots music authority Rhiannon Giddens for a BBC radio documentary, and graduating from college — all recent signposts along the way in the emergence of Tray Wellington.

Hosting the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Momentum Awards ceremony at its annual convention, and then appearing on the organization’s Wide Open Bluegrass festival Main Stage; releasing his first singles for Mountain Home Music Company; appearing on David Holt’s State Of Music series on PBS; signing with boutique booking agency Prater Day; earning coverage in publications such as The Bluegrass Situation, and graduating from college — all recent signposts along the way in the emergence of Tray Wellington.