It was a great week for roots music in Raleigh NC at the 2024 IBMAs in late September, with music showcases galore, practically every artist and label in bluegrass especially meeting and greeting and doing business, late night jams, and plenty of engaging and informative music panels during the day. The highlight of the business conference side of things, for me, was a two-day series of seminars titled “Roots Revival: A Black Stringband Symposium”. Much of what those panel events put forward was not only new; some of it was quite revelatory.

In recent years, roots music fans have been turning over stone after stone when it comes to the importance of Black artists in traditional music, ranging from the very dawn of string bands up to the current era of bluegrass and beyond. Knowledge of key figures like Arnold Shultz and DeFord Bailey is much more widespread now, thanks in large part to the music of Generation X stars like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Old Crow Medicine Show, who are succeeded by younger generations of artists like Jake Blount and Kaia Kater in making their predecessors’ stories, along with the broader history and culture, much better known.

Tray Wellington took part in the Black Stringband Symposium series, and we caught up after he spoke and played at the seminar titled “Black Music In Appalachia”, which was one of the six hosted by IBMA in partnership with The Banjo Gathering and Elderly Instruments. Tray makes his second appearance on this podcast, and brings us new music as well from his 2024 collection Detour To The Moon.

Tray Wellington speaks at the “Black Music In Appalachia” seminar at IBMA 09/27/24
Photo: The Banjo Gathering

Songs heard in this episode:

“Moon In Motion 1” by Tray Wellington, from Detour To The Moon

“Till Summer Was Gone” by Tray Wellington, from Detour to the Moon, excerpt

“Lift Up Every Stone” by Tray Wellington, from Detour to the Moon, excerpt

“Spiral Staircase” by Tray Wellington, from Detour to the Moon

Thanks for dropping by! We hope you can help spread awareness of what we are doing. It is as easy as telling a friend and following this podcast on your platform of choice. You can find us on Apple here, and YouTube here — hundreds more episodes await, filled with artists you may know by name, or musicians and bands that are ready to become your next favorites.

This series is a part of the lineup of both public radio WNCW and Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to everyone at IBMA for helping to make this interview possible, and to Jaclyn Anthony for producing the radio adaptations of this series on WNCW, where we worked with Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Years ago, when the tenth anniversary of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack was the topic on my WNCW talk show What It Is, writer and editor Kim Ruehl remarked that the movie made an indelible mark on the music scene by taking heretofore uncool hillbilly music, putting it in the mouth of George Clooney, and exposing all the punk and rock and roll kids to a style which could be truly offensive. It was a hilarious, spot-on statement, and indeed many a rough hewn, banjo-fronted band was born in the wake of the film’s massive success. O Brother was an inflection point for roots music like old-time and bluegrass, becoming a lens for discovering and interpreting a culture and its go-to musical styles for the broader public, akin to Deliverance a generation before.

Even though banjo sales jumped and the instrument became more prominent in settings both acoustic and otherwise, its perception did not change wholesale throughout our culture. Even though banjos enjoyed a renaissance in places before, like with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and would go on to become essential to the sound of folk-pop stars like Mumford & Sons, the instrument was still firmly anchored in music traditions born of its mostly White, Appalachian origin story. But what happens when you realize that story is only part of the history?

Tray Wellington Band performs at the Boonerang Music & Arts Festival 06-18-22 in Boone, NC

The banjo’s origin story, and how it moved into almost exclusively White contexts is touched on in this episode on Tray Wellington. The young artist from North Carolina also talks about his new album, Black Banjo, where he takes the instrument into a musical territory that borders bluegrass, old-time and jazz, while never staying so long in any one place that things get predictable. Tray talks here about how he cut his teeth playing at old-time music jams as well as other banjo players he looks up to, plus his love of making rap beats on the side. That and more at the link below and on podcast platforms everywhere.

Songs heard in this episode:

“Strasbourg/St. Denis” by Tray Wellington, from Black Banjo

“Gibbous Moon” by Tray Wellington, from Uncaged Thoughts, excerpt

“Naima” by Tray Wellington, from Black Banjo, excerpt

“Half Past Four” by Tray Wellington, from Black Banjo, excerpt

“Wasted Time” by Tray Wellington, with Tim O’Brien, from Black Banjo

Thank you for listening to this episode, and we would be even more grateful were you to share this with someone. It is super easy to follow us on your podcast platform of choice, and then it will only take a minute to give it a good rating, and on platforms with the option, a review. Great ratings and reviews will make Southern Songs and Stories and the artists it profiles more likely to be found by more people just like you.

Southern Songs and Stories is a part of the podcast lineup of Osiris Media, with all of the Osiris shows available here. You can also hear new episodes of this podcast on Bluegrass Planet Radio here. Thanks to Corrie Askew for producing the radio adaptations of this series on public radio WNCW, and to Joshua Meng, who wrote and performed our theme songs. This is Southern Songs and Stories: the music of the South and the artists who make it. - Joe Kendrick

Artist stereotypes do not apply

How many times have parents cringed when their children fell in love with a musician? Let's be honest, the world has looked askance at artists of all stripes (with notable exceptions) for most of our history. Musicians tend to be thought of as people who may be great at their art but who are nonetheless pretty bad at life skills like paying bills, getting to work on time, and sticking with the missus.

Aaron turns all those stereotypes on their head; he is not only a fantastic songwriter and musician, but he also runs his own construction business and is a devoted family man living a stone's throw from where he grew up in the western NC mountains. He is as meticulous and intense about his guitar and ballads as he is about his green built homes and raising his two girls.

As you'll see in our pilot episode, Aaron does both life and art exceptionally well. The folks around him are a big part of that.

Tray Wellington and the Black Stringband Symposium

Melody, Nuance and Innovation on the Banjo With Tray Wellington

Artist stereotypes do not apply