Grammy Award for Best Folk Album

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,^[1] 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".^[2]

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 awarded	2012
Currently held by	Joni Mitchell, At Newport (2024)
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.^[3]

This award combines the previous 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".^[4]

The inaugural recipients of the award were The Civil Wars, who won in 2012 for their album Barton Hollow. To date, Chris Thile is the only artist to win the award twice, first winning in 2013 as part of a collaborative album, and then again in 2019 as a member of the Punch Brothers. The current recipient of the award is Joni Mitchell, who won for her At Newport live album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.

Recipients

The Civil Wars are the inaugural winners of the award.

Husband and wife Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn won the award in 2016.

2020 recipient Patty Griffin.

Musical partners David Rawlings and Gillian Welch won the award in 2021.

2022 winner and four-time nominee Rhiannon Giddens.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Work	Nominees	Ref.
2012	The Civil Wars	Barton Hollow	Steve Earle — I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive Fleet Foxes — Helplessness Blues Eddie Vedder — Ukulele Songs Gillian Welch — The Harrow & the Harvest	[5]
2013	Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile	The Goat Rodeo Sessions	Carolina Chocolate Drops — Leaving Eden Ry Cooder — Election Special Luther Dickinson — Hambone's Meditations Shawn Camp & Tamara Saviano (album producers) — This One's To Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark, performed by various artists	[6]
2014	Guy Clark	My Favorite Picture of You	The Greencards — Sweetheart of the Sun Sarah Jarosz — Build Me Up From Bones The Milk Carton Kids — The Ash & Clay Various Artists/Chris Strachwitz (producer) — They All Played For Us: Arhoolie Records 50th Anniversary Celebration	[7]
2015	Old Crow Medicine Show	Remedy	Mike Auldridge, Jerry Douglas & Rob Ickes — Three Bells Alice Gerrard — Follow the Music Eliza Gilkyson — The Nocturne Diaries Jesse Winchester — A Reasonable Amount of Trouble	[8]
2016	Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn	Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn	Norman Blake — Wood, Wire & Words Rhiannon Giddens — Tomorrow Is My Turn Patty Griffin — Servant of Love Glen Hansard — Didn't He Ramble	[9]
2017	Sarah Jarosz	Undercurrent	Judy Collins & Ari Hest — Silver Skies Blue Robbie Fulks — Upland Stories Rhiannon Giddens — Factory Girl Sierra Hull — Weighted Mind	[10]
2018	Aimee Mann	Mental Illness	Laura Marling — Semper Femina Offa Rex — The Queen of Hearts The Secret Sisters — You Don't Own Me Anymore Yusuf / Cat Stevens — The Laughing Apple	[11]
2019	Punch Brothers	All Ashore	Joan Baez – Whistle Down The Wind Dom Flemons – Black Cowboys Mary Gauthier – Rifles & Rosary Beads Iron & Wine – Weed Garden	[12]
2020	Patty Griffin	Patty Griffin	Gregory Alan Isakov — Evening Machines Joy Williams — Front Porch Andrew Bird — My Finest Work Yet Che Apalache — Rearrange My Heart	[13]
2021	Gillian Welch & David Rawlings	All the Good Times	Bonny Light Horseman — Bonny Light Horseman Leonard Cohen — Thanks for the Dance Laura Marling — Song For Our Daughter The Secret Sisters — Saturn Return	[14]
2022	Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi	They're Calling Me Home	Mary Chapin Carpenter — One Night Lonely (Live) Tyler Childers — Long Violent History Madison Cunningham — Wednesday (Extended Version) Sarah Jarosz — Blue Heron Suite	[15]
2023	Madison Cunningham	Revealer	Judy Collins — Spellbound Janis Ian — The Light at the End of the Line Aoife O'Donovan — Age of Apathy The Punch Brothers — Hell on Church Street	[16]
2024	Joni Mitchell	At Newport (Live)	Dom Flemons - Traveling Wildfire The Milk Carton Kids - I Only See the Moon Nickel Creek - Celebrants Old Crow Medicine Show - Jubilee Paul Simon - Seven Psalms Rufus Wainwright - Folkocracy	[17]

^{^[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)

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)

2 nominations

• Judy Collins
• Madison Cunningham
• Dom Flemons (one as a member of The Carolina Chocolate Drops)
• Patty Griffin
• Laura Marling
• Punch Brothers
• Gillian Welch
• Joy Williams (one as a member of The Civil Wars)

See also

• List of Grammy Award categories

References

1. "Grammy Awards at a Glance". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2010.
2. "Overview". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on January 3, 2011. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
3. "Category Mapper". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 25, 2011.^{[permanent dead link]}
4. "Explanation For Category Restructuring". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on December 3, 2011. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
5. "2011 – 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards Nominees And Winners: American Roots Field". The Recording Academy. November 30, 2011. Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
6. List of 2013 nominees Archived February 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
7. "56th GRAMMY Awards: Full Winners List". Billboard. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
8. "List of Nominees 2015" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 11, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
9. "Grammy Awards 2016: See the Full Winners List". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 18, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
10. "59th Annual GRAMMY Awards Winners & Nominees". GRAMMY.com. Archived from the original on February 13, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
11. Lynch, Joe (November 28, 2017). "Grammys 2018: See the Complete List of Nominees". Billboard. Archived from the original on December 7, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
12. Grammy.com, 7 December 2018 Archived December 7, 2018, at the Wayback Machine
13. "Grammy Awards Nominations: The Complete List". Variety. November 20, 2019. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
14. "2021 Nominations List". Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
15. "2022 GRAMMYs Awards: Complete Nominations List". GRAMMY.com. November 23, 2021. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
16. "2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Nominees List". www.grammy.com. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
17. "2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Nominees List | GRAMMY.com". www.grammy.com. Retrieved November 12, 2023.

External links

• Official Site of the Grammy Awards