Steve Martin Banjo Prize Announces 2024 Winners Allison de Groot and Tray Wellington

Today, Dec. 17, Steve Martin and the board of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize have announced the 2024 recipients of their prestigious bluegrass awards. In keeping with its custom since 2021, the 14-year organization founded by the legendary comedian and banjo firebrand has identified two artists who demonstrate mastery of varied styles; this year’s honorees, Allison de Groot and Tray Wellington, represent not only singular talents and perspectives, but also the banjo’s rich, diverse traditions and new horizons. To acknowledge their cultural contributions, both winners will receive a $25,000 unrestricted cash prize.

De Groot has earned acclaim as one of the most esteemed clawhammer banjoists in North America, infusing that style’s driving rhythmic patterns with great tenderness and emotional depth. From her lifetime home of Winnipeg, Canada, the artist has steadily vied to build on her roots in traditional music with contemporary color, crafting the sort of stunning compositions that earned her 2 Canadian Folk Music Awards and a Juno nomination for her collaborations with  fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves. Beyond her own musical accomplishments, de Groot is committed to sharing her love of the banjo through online teaching via the ArtistWorks. “It still feels just as exciting as it did the first day I picked it up,” she shares of her relationship with her instrument. “I feel like I could live 100 lifetimes and explore the banjo.”

Wellington is an innovative new voice in bluegrass, who utilizes his expertise with the three-finger style banjo to create new cultural reference points for the instrument. Alongside his bluegrass roots, which shine through in his intricate sound, he expands his instrument’s horizons by embracing influences from jazz, hip-hop and more (hear his recent cover of “Caravan” for his genre-bending sensibilities). Based in the cultural crossroads of Raleigh, North Carolina, he earned the International Bluegrass Music Association’s prestigious Momentum Award in 2019 and has since earned widespread acclaim for his ever-evolving sound. “Exploring had always been part of my personality since I was a kid! Music is the same way for me,” Wellington offers. “Since I started playing banjo at 14, I had ideas for how I could constantly expand my musical vision and make my personality shine through banjo. Every day I am still on that journey and cannot wait to continue this pursuit.”

This year’s recipients of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize will be celebrated by the founder through Deering Live, a livestream event by the Deering Banjo Company, at 5:30 p.m. ET today. The livestream will be co-hosted by co-chair Alison Brown and shared on the Facebook pages of sponsors Compass Records and FreshGrass Foundation, which also shared the artist lineup for its 2025 FreshGrass Bentonville festival today. Tune in to the livestream here.

“The acknowledgement of these unique and talented musicians continues to thrill me,” Martin shared in a statement on the 2024 awards. Read more about the Steve Martin Banjo Prize at freshgrassfoundation.org/steve-martin-banjo-prize.

Allison de Groot (Photo Credit: Phil Cook)

Tray Wellington