Tray Wellington over for a select number of shows in June

Tray Wellington is breaking new ground in bluegrass banjo. He is widely recognized as one of the young lions on his instrument.

Tray fell in love with the banjo as a kid growing up in Ashe County, North Carolina. He learned to play the classic Scruggs-style bluegrass banjo at local jams and cut his teeth as a touring musician with the IBMA Award winning band Cane Mill Road. Since leaving the band in 2019, he’s broadened his sound and is now as likely to play something by jazz legend John Coltrane as he is a Flatt and Scruggs tune.

He released his debut solo album “Black Banjo” in 2022 on the Asheville-based label Mountain Home Records. Bluegrass Today wrote that the record “…will keep you on your toes.” No Depression Magazine described it as “…a strategically blended range of music.”

“I’ve been really getting away from trying to sound like anybody, necessarily,” Tray told Bluegrass Situation in a 2021 interview. “That’s been my big thing. I want to be one of those musicians that tries to make my own voice on the instrument overall and gives my own ideas to it. A lot of that came from studying different players, like Béla Fleck and Scott Vestal and Noam Pikelny. Not just studying them, but studying the old school kind of stuff as well.”

In June Tray Wellington comes over for a select number of shows:

25/06: Bristol, UK - The Lantern*
26/06: London, UK - The Green Note
27/06: Brighton, UK - The Folklore Rooms
29/06: Rotterdam, NL - Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival
30/06: Rotterdam, NL - Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival
* with Dom Flemons