The Glory-Beaming Banjo

Allison de Groot was named a recipient of the 2024 Steve Martin Banjo Prize . She rose to prominence over the last decade playing alongside Bruce Molsky as a member of the Mountain Drifters as well as in a duo with fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves .  De Groot hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada, and she has received two Canadian Folk Music Awards and a Juno nomination. She recently launched her online banjo instructional program on the ArtistWorks platform. I've had the opportunity to see de Groot in concert twice, once with Molsky and once with Hargreaves. She is a versatile player, whose style effortlessly balances driving rhythm for raucous dance tunes and breakdowns, while elevating lyrical melodic phrases. She can match the fiddle note for note, but also is adept at exploring harmonic counter melodies. De Groot is well deserving of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, which has been presented annually since 2010 and has been presented by the nonprofit group, the Fresh Grass Foundati...

This year has already been pretty  extra , but the stakeholders behind the Steve Martin Banjo Prize just said, "Hold my beer." According to a No Depression article today , five banjo players have won the 2020 award. You may recall that after the 2019 award was announced, there was some uncertainty as to whether the prize would continue. In August, which according to the calendar I have here was only two months ago, the non-profit FreshGrass Foundation signed on to continue awarding the prize into its second decade.  In the past, there was only one winner per year, with a cash prize of $50,000. With FreshGrass taking the reins, the organization announced that the prize would an annual award of $25,000 to one or more banjo players across the stylistic spectrum including both five- and four-string banjo masters.  "However, in light of the tremendous need in the musical community this year, the 2020 prize will be $50,000 split equally between five banjo players," accor...

Source: Rhiannon Giddens Facebook C arolina Chocolate Drops founder Rhiannon Giddens was named the 2016 recipient of the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. The $50,000 award was established in 2010 and has been presented annually by a board comprised of Martin, J.D. Crowe, Pete Wernick, Tony Trischka, Anne Stringfield, Noam Pikelny, Alison Brown, Dr. Neil Rosenberg and Béla Fleck. Giddens is the first woman and first African American to win the award. In addition to performing with the Grammy-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, she has also recorded a successful solo album that prominently features her banjo playing. "Rhiannon Giddens occupies a unique position in the world of banjo music, bridging contemporary and traditional forms and the cultures of three continents," says the Steve Martin Prize website . "Few musicians have done more to revitalize old-time sounds in the last decade. Drawing from blues, jazz, folk, hip-hop, traditional Af...