The Grammy Award for Best Folk Album is an award presented at the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS), doing business as The Recording Academy, is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is widely kno ...

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". 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 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". 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 Christopher Scott Thile (; born February 20, 1981) is an American mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, best known for his work in the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek and the acoustic folk and progressive blue ...

Gillian Welch Gillian Howard Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, coun ...

, and David Rawlings have won this award twice each; the latter two act as the current recipients of the award for ''

Woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

'' at the

67th Annual Grammy Awards The 67th Annual Grammy Awards honored the best recordings, compositions, and artists from September 16, 2023, to August 30, 2024, as chosen by the members of the Recording Academy, on February 2, 2025. In its 22nd year at Crypto.com Arena in L ...

Recipients

Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn play a duet at Shakori Hills Festival in 2010

Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

Artists with multiple wins

;2 wins ;*

(one as a member of the Punch Brothers) ;*

;* David Rawlings

Artists with multiple nominations

;4 nominations ;* Rhiannon Giddens (one as a member The Carolina Chocolate Drops) 3 nominations * Sarah Jarosz *

(one as a member of the Punch Brothers) *

;2 nominations *

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...

* Madison Cunningham * Dom Flemons (one as a member of The Carolina Chocolate Drops) *

Patty Griffin Patricia Jean Griffin (born March 16, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.Griffin, Patricia She is a vocalist and plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre. Her songs ...

Laura Marling Laura Beatrice Marling (born 1 February 1990) is an English Folk music, folk singer-songwriter. She won the Brit Award for Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist, Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and was nominated for th ...

* Aoife O'Donovan * Punch Brothers * Joy Williams (one as a member of The Civil Wars)

References

External links

Official Site of the Grammy Awards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grammy Award For Best Folk Album Grammy Awards for folk music Folk Album Album awards

Recipients

Artists with multiple wins

Artists with multiple nominations

See also

References

External links