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Steve Martin has played the banjo for nearly 60 years now. The instrument was a major part of his early stand-up comedy routines, and after he got more serious about it in the past two decades, his playing has won him multiple Grammys. Once he started touring and witnessing the sheer talent people had on the instrument, he had a revelation. “I thought, ‘This is equal to classical musicianship,'” he tells Rolling Stone. “And I was talking to a guy who was a master banjo player — he was one of the top players — and he told me he’s still paying off his banjo. I thought, ‘Somehow, we’ve got to help these people.'” Enter the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo & Bluegrass.

Since 2010, the comedian and musician has recognized some of the world’s greatest banjo players by awarding one player $50,000 of his personal money and a trophy to each. This year, he’s making some changes. Because the award was getting expensive, he partnered with the FreshGrass Foundation, whose aim is to preserve grassroots music, and Compass Records to keep it going. They’ve expanded the board — Martin now considers himself an emeritus board member — and widened the award’s scope to honor more types of banjo styles. It will also now recognize five musicians a year instead of one.

Martin will introduce this year’s recipients via the FreshGrass Festival’s virtual #FreshStreams event, which starts at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday. This year’s honorees include Jake Blount, a specialist in black and indigenous styles, Catherine B.B. Bowness, a New Zealander who has expanded five-string, Scruggs-style playing, Matthew Davis, a 21-year-old exploring new musical horizons on the instrument, Gerry O’Connor, an Irishman interested in connecting Irish music with African, Asia, and bluegrass styles, and Buddy Wachter, a well-recognized four-string banjoist.

Because of need in the music community, this year’s class will split $50,000 between them, and going forward, the award will be $25,000, which would be divided among the recipients. The FreshStreams event will also raise money for MusiCares, which offers relief to musicians in need.

So how does one recognize excellence in banjo playing? “Hearsay,” Martin deadpans. “Once you get the names, then usually you can find their music online, whether it’s on YouTube or a record. I’ve seen players on YouTube that I couldn’t touch. I’d never heard of them, and they live in Wyoming somewhere. So people talk, and you start to hear names. There’s no scientific process.”

Martin says he’s happy that the board has grown from eight members to 15 this year, because it casts a wider net. “I couldn’t keep track of all the players, and it was getting harder and harder,” he says. “I perceived a time that wouldn’t be fair anymore because I wouldn’t know all these players, and I was just going to stop the prize.” Then Compass Records’ Alison Brown and her husband Gerry West offered to link the award up with FreshGrass. “We would all participate, and you’d have a more diverse board,” he says. “With the board now expanded, they have their finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the musical world, whereas I didn’t.”

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