The Grammy Award for Best Folk Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the folk genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".
| Grammy Award for Best Folk Album | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | quality vocal or instrumental folk music albums |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences |
| First award | 2012 |
| Currently held by | Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Woodland (2025) |
| Website | grammy.com |
According to the 54th Grammy Awards guideline the Best Folk Album category includes authentic folk material in both traditional vocal and instrumental styles, as well as contemporary material by artists who use traditional folk elements, sounds and instrumental techniques as the basis for their recordings. Folk music is primarily but not exclusively acoustic, often using contemporary arrangements with production and sensibilities distinctly different from a pop approach.
This award - established in 2012 - combines the previously used categories for Best Contemporary Folk Album and Traditional Folk Album. The Recording Academy decided to create this new category for 2012 upon stating there were "challenges in distinguishing between... Contemporary and Traditional Folk".
Like most album categories, the performing artist (of greater than 50% of playing time on the album) receives a nomination. The actual Grammy is awarded to the performing artist, the producer and the engineer/mixer.
The inaugural recipients of the award were The Civil Wars, who won in 2012 for their album Barton Hollow. To date, Chris Thile, Gillian Welch, and David Rawlings have won this award twice each; the latter two act as the current recipients of the award for Woodland at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.
Recipients
| Year[I] | Winners | Work | Nominees | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | The Civil Wars
| Barton Hollow |
| |
| 2013 | Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile
| The Goat Rodeo Sessions |
| |
| 2014 | Guy Clark
| My Favorite Picture of You |
| |
| 2015 | Old Crow Medicine Show
| Remedy |
| |
| 2016 | Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
| Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn |
| |
| 2017 | Sarah Jarosz
| Undercurrent |
| |
| 2018 | Aimee Mann
| Mental Illness |
| |
| 2019 | Punch Brothers
| All Ashore |
| |
| 2020 | Patty Griffin
| Patty Griffin |
| |
| 2021 | Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
| All the Good Times |
| |
| 2022 | Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi
| They're Calling Me Home |
| |
| 2023 | Madison Cunningham | Revealer |
| |
| 2024 | Joni Mitchell
| At Newport (Live) |
| |
| 2025 | Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
| Woodland |
| |
| 2026 | I'm With Her | Wild and Clear and Blue |
|
^[I] Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.
Artists with multiple wins
- 2 wins
- Chris Thile (one as a member of the Punch Brothers)
- Gillian Welch
- David Rawlings
- Sarah Jarosz (one as a member of the I'm with Her)
Artists with multiple nominations
- 4 nominations
- Rhiannon Giddens (one as a member The Carolina Chocolate Drops)
3 nominations
- Sarah Jarosz
- Chris Thile (one as a member of the Punch Brothers)
- Gillian Welch
- Aoife O'Donovan (one as a member of the I'm with Her)
- 2 nominations
- Judy Collins
- Madison Cunningham
- Dom Flemons (one as a member of The Carolina Chocolate Drops)
- Patty Griffin
- Laura Marling
- Punch Brothers
- Joy Williams (one as a member of The Civil Wars)
See also
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