Tray Wellington Band

Tray Wellington is a banjo player from western North Carolina who studied in the bluegrass program at East Tennessee State University and played in the band Cane Mill Road before forming a group under his own name. His playing works from a three-finger bluegrass foundation but pulls in jazz harmony and phrasing, and he has spoken about drawing on hip-hop and other music outside the tradition.

He was named IBMA Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year, and his album Black Banjo appeared in 2022. Live, the band leans on original instrumentals alongside reworked material from beyond the bluegrass repertoire.