Grammy Award for Best Folk Album

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 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]

The inaugural recipients of the award were The Civil Wars, who won in 2012 for their album Barton Hollow. To date, Chris Thile is the only artist to win the award twice, first winning in 2013 as part of a collaborative album, and then again in 2019 as a member of the Punch Brothers. The current recipient of the award is Joni Mitchell, who won for her At Newport live album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.