Kristin Scott Benson

Kristin Scott Benson is a five-time International Bluegrass Music Association’s Banjo Player of the Year and recipient of the 2018 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass. Since 2008, she has been a member of Grammy-nominated and two-time IBMA Entertainers of the Year, The Grascals.

Kristin is one of the nation’s top bluegrass banjo players, exhibiting impeccable taste, timing, and tone. With an attentive ear to back-up, she is known and respected as a true team player among her peers. Many consider her to be one of the first females to successfully be a side-musician in a top-tiered bluegrass band.

Kristin’s latest solo album, entitled “Stringworks,” was released in July of 2016. It debuted in the top-ten on Billboard’s Bluegrass album chart and the self-penned opening track, ‘Great Waterton,’ was nominated for IBMA’s Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. Kristin plays a 1930 Gibson TB-3 banjo.

In her interview, Benson talks about her early days, influences and mentors, her role as sideman in a band, being a woman in the band, traveling with the Grascals, what’s next in her career, living her lifelong passion, and gives advice to young musicians.