Tray Wellington Expands Progressive Bluegrass Sound With 'Detour to the Moon': 'I've Always Considered Myself a Banjo Explorer'

The lyrics to the 2009 song “Pursuit of Happiness” by hip-hop artist Kid Cudi include the lyrics “I'll do exactly what I want/ Looking ahead, no turning back.”

These lyrics also serve as a musically liberating anthem for bluegrass artist and banjo virtuoso Trajan “Tray” Wellington, who includes a bluegrass-tinged, hip-hop tinge to the tune in his seven-song work. Bypass to the Moonout July 12 via Mountain Home Music Company.

“I've always considered myself an explorer of the banjo. I always try to see it as an exploration within the music and always pushing the boundaries,” says 25-year-old Wellington. Advertising sign. “I think within roots music, a lot of times it can get stagnant and people feel like they have to take a certain avenue and appeal to this or appeal to that.”

Wellington grew up in Asheville, North Carolina and credits his grandfather's CD collection as his first brush with musical love. Initially, Wellington started playing electric guitar, until six months later he found a CD of Doc Watson's greatest hits in the collection, which inspired him to learn flat pick guitar. Then Wellington High School had a Mountain Music Club, where his teacher pulled out a banjo and started playing the bluegrass standard “Salt Creek.”

“I'd never heard anything like it,” recalls Wellington of picking up the banjo at age 14. “I fell in love with it and almost immediately put the guitar to the side and started learning the banjo.”

His proficiency on the instrument was evident even before graduating from East Tennessee State University's prestigious Bluegrass, Old Time and Country program, as he had already won the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) Momentum Award for 2019 as its musician of the year while playing as part of the group Cane Mill Road (which also won IBMA's momentum band of the year award that same year).

He followed with the independent E.K Uncaged thoughts in 2020, before signing with Mountain Home Music Company later that year. He has since appeared on the main stage at IBMA's World of Bluegrass, hosted the Momentum Awards, and led banjo workshops at the Merlefest and Gray Fox music festivals.

Wellington's music has always had the indelible influence of jazz music, and this is evident again in his latest outing, with his bluegrass-meets-new age take on Duke Ellington's 'Caravan', while nodding to bluegrass banjo Bill 1970's Keith- view performance.

“When I was trying to work it on the banjo, I just got this cool chord voicing it,” says Wellington. “I was like, 'This makes it almost sound like a new age sound,' so I tried to take it and make it sound even more spacey in a way. My fiddler at the time, Josiah Nelson, knew 'Caravan,' so I asked him to play the 'Caravan' tune on it, and it just gave off a completely different vibe than any other version I've heard.”

Elsewhere, he delivers a stunning rendition of John Hiatt's “Lift Up Every Stone,” but also mixes these recurring fantasies with originals like “Spiral Staircase.”

His sound combines his musically progressive probing with traditional bluegrass elements. In addition to Nelson, he is joined by bassist Katelynn Bohn, drummer Mike Ashworth (of Steep Canyon Rangers), singer/guitarist Nick Weitzenfeld, steel guitarist DaShawn Hickman, vocalist Wendy Hickman and Americana artist Kaia Kate. Bypass to the Moon It was recorded in Arden, North Carolina's Crossroads Studios, a recording space frequently used by bluegrass luminaries such as Bryan Sutton, Lonesome River Band, Doyle Lawson and Alison Krauss & Union Station member Barry Bales.

Wellington has also made significant strides in breaking down musical boundaries and stereotypes with his music. Most notably with his 2022 debut full-length album Black BanjoWellington has been a staunch supporter of increasing diversity and representation in the genre.

“With the Black Banjo project, No. 1 was the idea that black people invented this music. they belong here,” he says. “No. 2, and one of the biggest things I would say I deal with sometimes – but not as much anymore – was people trying to tell me what to do with my music, like 'You have to do this as a black person musician' or 'You should play some songs on the gourd banjo' or 'You should play these songs by these people from time to time. People feel the need to say that, but it's a very one-dimensional way of looking at how to you showcase black art in this music really the best way to do it is to let these black people have top slots to showcase their talent i just had to realize i'm my own musician, me my own influences”.

He expanded his mission Black Banjo teaming up with three other black-rooted musicians late last year — singer/multi-instrumentalist Kater, bassist Nelson Williams and fiddler/vocalist Jake Blount — to form the group New Dangerfield. They released their debut single, “Dangerfield Newby,” in April, and Wellington says the band are preparing to release another song later this month and are set to go into the studio to record an album later this year.

“We're four different artists who have different backgrounds, different sets of musical personalities, and what we're trying to do now is figure out how it all works together,” says Wellington.

He says he's seen representation grow in terms of artists of color within the genre, but there's still a lot of work to be done in terms of representing the bluegrass genre to the public.

“When I first started, I don't remember seeing many people who were black,” notes Wellington. “As I got older, I started to realize a lot more and I was like, 'It's weird how there aren't a lot of people who look like me in this music.' But I think there's been more representation and I think a lot of organizations are doing work to make sure people feel welcome. But there is still a lot of work to be done, especially within the audience spectrum, especially. I would like to see this aspect of him grow. Musicians [are] one thing, but still, most places I go to, like 95%, are mostly white audiences. And I think it's as much a mix of the musicians as the actual venues themselves, because there are certain places [where] just a bunch of people of different backgrounds not comfortable going. If you walk into a predominantly white room, as a person of color, you feel like an outlier. It's about making people feel welcome when they walk in.”

While he works to support greater diversity in roots music and expand the genre beyond traditional boundaries, he also has a laundry list of artists he hopes to one day collaborate with — including bluegrasser Billy Strings, Snarky Puppy's Cory Henry and singer Bella White.

“While I'm still building and still growing as an artist, I feel like I'm going to do a lot of cool things that I've always wanted to do,” says Wellington. “I just got back from a short tour in Europe and I was in the airport last night and I realized, 'Man, I started playing the banjo when I was 14. And the 14-year-old would never have imagined it. “I would do what I'm doing now.”