On his 2022 album Black BanjoTray Wellington broke stereotypes and pushed the boundaries of what bluegrass music can be. On his new EP Detour to the moonhe picks up right where he left off, weaving jazz, hip-hop, country and more into his groundbreaking banjo bangers.
The interweaving of influences in the seven-song project serves as a transition between the LPs; the EP is the first in a planned concept series that shows the musician’s sonic and personal development.
“I want to keep pushing myself and growing until I reach my maximum potential, and I don’t feel like I’m anywhere near that point yet,” Wellington tells BGS about the concept of the project. “So when we’re talking about the universe, I want to go way beyond the moon because we’ve been there and because my influences are constantly evolving and I want to be able to reflect on all of that.”
Although he plays the banjo best today, Wellington’s musical development began years earlier on the guitar – until he stumbled upon the music of Doc Watson while browsing through his grandfather’s record collection. In middle school, the western North Carolina native joined a mountain music club that traveled to local communities playing traditional bluegrass music. Eventually, one of his teachers, Josh Church, introduced him to the banjo, and he has never looked back.
“I had never heard him play the banjo before, but that day he pulled it out and started playing ‘Salt Creek,'” Wellington recalls. “I was immediately captivated by the sound and fell in love. After that, he taught me a song or two, which led to me begging my mom for a banjo the summer before ninth grade started.”
Since taking up the banjo, Wellington has emerged as one of the region’s most promising young musicians, notably winning the International Bluegrass Music Association’s 2019 Momentum Award for Instrumentalist of the Year, graduating from East Tennessee State University’s Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies program, and co-founding New Dangerfield – a black roots supergroup that also includes vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Kaia Kater, bassist Nelson Williams, and fiddler/vocalist Jake Blount.
This promise shines everywhere Detour to the moonon which he equally creates his own instrumental soundscapes and takes the songs of others, such as “Caravan” by Duke Ellington, “Lift Up Every Stone” by John Hiatt and “Pursuit Of Happiness” by Kid Cudi, and makes them his own.
In particular, Wellington says he had to record Cudi’s diamond-certified hit, first released in 2009, right after hearing it for the first time in 2023 because its message of drug abuse and escapism touched him deeply.
“That, and the fact that I’ve witnessed the profoundly positive impact it has had on others, lifting them out of the dark places they once found themselves in, is what made me want to record it,” explains Wellington. “When a tune has that much power, it deserves to be re-recorded and made available to as many new listeners as possible.”
Wellington has not only pushed boundaries with his music, but also with his own creative skills in artwork for Detour to the moonthat he created himself. The first time this happened was after a graphic designer he had hired dropped out of the project as the deadline for the work was fast approaching. Rather than hiring someone new to complete the work or delaying it (and risking delaying the entire project), he started completing it himself. The artwork shows Wellington standing stoically with his banjo on a cratered lunar surface with a looming purple glow. It is a testament not only to his creativity but also to the improvisation and ingenuity that make him a first-class musician as well.
“It took me 30 hours to create the artwork,” says Wellington, laughing about how the artwork came about. “I had to come up with the concept and find reference images before sketching out ideas and putting everything into Photoshop. It took a long time, but I’m proud of how it turned out and now I have this new skill that I can continue to hone and potentially help other artists with as well.”
Wellington’s ingenuity is not only evident in the EP’s cover and song selection, but also in the musicians who supported him on this project. For the first time in his three studio albums Detour to the moon Drums are by Michael Ashworth of Steep Canyon Rangers. Also featured is Drew Matulich (The Grass Is Dead), another Asheville regular, who co-produced most of the songs and played guitar in place of Nick Weitzenfeld, who injured his hand during recording. Pedal steel guitarist DaShawn Hickman, singer Wendy Hickman and Kater were also featured.
These turning points came after Wellington began the recording process and planned for the musicians accompanying him to be drawn exclusively from his traveling band—bassist Katelynn Bohn, mandolinist/violinist Josiah Nelson, and Weitzenfeld. While each of them is on all or part of the project, it also evolved into something larger that celebrates not only Wellington’s sonic evolution, but also the many similarities between black music past and present.
Connecting those dots and advocating for more diversity in bluegrass and roots music has long been a part of Wellington’s creative work. While he’s done more than he could to advance those efforts, he says it will take a lot more to achieve representation where it matters most – with audiences.
“I’ve seen a lot more black people in the last five years and other people that I wouldn’t normally have seen before picking up a banjo, fiddle or mandolin and playing bluegrass music, but by and large we’re still very few in number,” Wellington explains. “It’s up to venues, labels, artists, fans – all of us – to step up and push for change, because at the end of the day, no one wants to go to shows where they know they won’t feel comfortable.”
Photo credit: Heidi Holloway
