The Tray Wellington Band w/ Rachel Gore

Banjo player Tray Wellington’s approach to the quintessential American instrument is all about looking forward. An International Bluegrass Music Association Award winner, Wellington is critically acclaimed not only for his technical prowess, but also for leveraging his unique point of view to craft a one-of-a-kind voice on the instrument. It’s a feat that’s all too rare in these roots genres that seem to value emulation and regurgitation over all else. Instead, Wellington has time and time again reasserted that his playing style, and all of the many varied and disparate parts that combine within it, is wholly his own – and it’s unconcerned with tradition.

 

Born underneath the Southern sun on the hottest July day, Rachel Gore finds respite in conversations with her ancestors about the cyclical nature of life and death.

After earning a degree in Songwriting, winning an American Songwriter lyric contest, and releasing her debut EP Forgotten Woman of Folk while living in Nashville, Gore moved back to her hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina.

From the thriving local music scene to the maturation of the faces she grew up with, Gore found herself seven years wiser when she returned to the growing coastal community.

“I pray for the roadkill, I live with my own guilt, I die a death every day,” Gore sings on her latest single “The Territory,” which chronicles her journey of radical self-acceptance in the face of crippling anxiety. Co-produced by Jacob Adams, the song swings through swelling pedal steel melodies behind Gore’s melancholic voice.

Blending the illustrative lyrics of artists like Iron and Wine, the folksy harmonies of Gillian Welch and the timeless ambiance of Neil Young, Gore fosters a sound that is familiar and comforting against thought-provoking lyricism.