Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album

Prior to 1987, folk music was honored in the Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category. From 1987 to 1993 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording and was presented under its current name from 1994. The category and it's Best Contemporary Folk Album counterpart were discontinued after 53rd Annual Grammy Awards the in 2011 during a major overhaul of Grammy categories, with the Recording Academy citing "challenges in distinguishing between traditional and contemporary folk".^[2] From 2012 to 2025, all folk music was honored with the Best Folk Album category.

The revival of the Best Traditional Folk Album category was announced on June 16, 2026 alongside Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Latin Song.^[3] Of the announcement, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. stated, "2027 is going to be an amazing year for the Grammy Awards, and one that reflects the extraordinary growth we're seeing across music. The changes advanced by our Recording Academy members speak to the breadth of today's music industry and the many genres, crafts and creators shaping it. We're excited to see these updates come to life in the year ahead as we celebrate the music people who are driving music forward".^[4] It was stated that the re-separation of the Best Folk Album category "provides more precise recognition across different forms of folk music and better reflects the breadth of that musical landscape".^[5] The Folk Alliance International, a non-profit organization centred around the folk genre, petitioned the Recording Academy for the return of the Traditional and Contemporary Folk Album categories, and celebrated the announcement, stating that it was something their membership had "long called for" and which "addresses a significant representation and credibility gap in the genre" and challenges a "long-held stereotype that folk music is exclusively Eurocentric", as well as their hope that this would allow for more culturally diverse folk and traditional music to be honored moving forwards.^[6]

According to the Recording Academy's rulebook for the 2027 ceremony, eligible albums for this category include recordings "with folk song structures, harmonic structures, and rhythms" and traditional folk instrumentation such as piano, harmonica, strings, percussion, and woodwind from around the world. Song types including sea shanties, old-time music, a capella, work songs, ballads, and call and response songs are all considered eligible as long as they are sonically distinct from regional roots music recoridngs, which are honored in the Best Regional Roots Music Album category.^[7]

3 wins

• Doc Watson
• The Chieftains

2 wins

• June Carter Cash
• Pete Seeger