Winston Marshall
Winston Marshall is one of the founding members of the Grammy Award winning British band Mumford & Sons formed in 2007. During his time with the band through 2020 Winston played banjo, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro, and provides backing vocals.
Before Mumford & Sons became established, Winston ran a jam night at Bosun's Locker, a tiny music club, where musicians who had an affinity for acoustic music hung out and played music together. He had started playing electric guitar at age 13, but later had a singularly intense O Brother, Where Art Thou? experience. As he said, "Watching it was fucking the end of me. It was like, 'That is the music I want to make' ". And so he took up the banjo. Since then he has been one of a handful of banjo players to bring the instrument a new life and appreciation in mainstream music. There are many banjo players today who will tell you they were inspired to play by Winston Marshall.
In the second decade of the 21st century, Mumford & Sons have managed to push acoustic instruments and crowd-around-the-mic harmonies toward the center of pop culture, no small feat!
Collaborating with Deering, Winston and all of Mumford & Sons have also been passionate about given back to the areas they perform. Custom one of a kind banjos have been made for locations they played all over the world, from Australia to South Africa, the United Kingdom to the United States. A local charity for the region was chosen by Deering and the band, one that focused on human needs (such as homelessness, mental health, education, elderly, etc) and each banjo was personally signed by the band and auctioned off with the proceeds going to these charities. Over $150,000 has been raised for human needs assistance through this wonderful collaboration. We couldn't be more honored to have had the pleasure to work with the genuine lads, and team, of Mumford & Sons.