Tray Wellington in the UK and The Netherlands for a select number of shows

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

Growing up in western North Carolina’s Ashe County, Trajan “Tray” Wellington heard a lot of music — and from the first time he heard the banjo as a young teen, he was, he says, “hooked.” Even before he graduated from East Tennessee State University’s renowned Bluegrass, Old-Time and Country program, Wellington had earned acclaim as the banjo player with Cane Mill Road, performing across the country and winning a 2019 International Bluegrass Music Association, Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year award while the group took Momentum Band of the Year honors.

A well-received, independently released 2020 EP under his own name, the creation of his Tray Wellington Band and signing with Mountain Home Music Company that same year marked Wellington’s decision to make his own path going forward. As he began releasing singles in advance of his full-length debut, Black Banjo, Wellington continued to garner attention, leading banjo workshops at the prestigious Merlefest and Gray Fox festivals; performing on the IBMA’s 2020 World of Bluegrass Main Stage and acting as host for the Momentum Awards ceremony. 

His latest is an instrumental: “Blue Collared Dog and His Green Eyed Friend” Wellington say about it “One late night while doing some paintings, we ended the night with two different ones. One featured a dog with a blue collar, and one featured a cat with bright green eyes. I thought about how, if I was still a kid, I would've created a whole story within these paintings of how these two were friends and journeyed the world together. Shortly after this thought, I picked up my banjo and just did some improv which ended up being the start of the tune. I just kept going and finished the tune in that improv session, remembered what I could and recorded it right away. I was amazed at how such a simple thought could help me create a piece of music I'm so proud of.”

By the end of the month Tray Wellington is over in UK and Netherlands for a handful 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