Grammy Award for Best Folk Album

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
Official website	grammy.com

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]

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 Best 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]

Recipients

Year^[I]	Performing artist(s)	Work	Nominees	Ref.
2016	Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn	Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn	Norman Blake - Wood, Fire & Words Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn Patty Griffin - Servant of Love Glen Hansard - Didn't He Ramble
2015	Old Crow Medicine Show	Remedy	Mike Auldridge, Jerry Douglas & Rob Ickes - Three Bells Alice Gerrard - Follow the Music Eliza Gilkyson - The Nocturen Diaries Jesse Winchester - A Reasonable Amount of Trouble	[5]
2014	Guy Clark	My Favourite 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
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]
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	[7]

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.

See also

List of Grammy Award categories

References

1. "Grammy Awards at a Glance". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved April 24, 2010.
2. "Overview". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 11, 2010.
3. "Category Mapper". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
4. "Explanation For Category Restructuring". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
5. List of Nominees 2015
6. List of 2013 nominees
7. "2011 – 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards Nominees And Winners: American Roots Field". The Recording Academy. November 30, 2011.

External links

• Official Site of the Grammy Awards