began to tour in earnest. The Moose Whisperers put out their self-titled album in early 2018 and embarked on a release tour in Scandinavia. Upon returning, Blount and Hargreaves opened several shows for Rhiannon Giddens. Blount and fiddler Libby Weitnauer formed the duo Tui on a tour of Australia in late 2018. They released their album, Pretty Little Mister, in 2019. In the following year, Blount appeared on Radiolab and was selected as a member of the International Bluegrass Music Association's Leadership Bluegrass Class of 2020. He also claimed first place in the banjo contest at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival, competing with tunes from Black banjoists Nathan Frazier and Dink Roberts. Blount released his debut solo album, Spider Tales, on Free Dirt Records on May 29, 2020. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Bluegrass Chart. The Guardian declared the record "an instant classic," and awarded it five out of five stars. Bandcamp selected it as their Album of the Day, and it received positive coverage from NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard and more. In an interview with Country Queer, Blount stated that the album "came out of a desire to tease out the sort of anger and demands for justice and resentment that I see simmering in the black traditional music canon throughout history," and was intended to contradict preconceived notions about Black folk music. The album was named among the best releases of 2022 by publications including NPR, Bandcamp Daily, and The New Yorker. Blount received the Steve Martin Banjo Prize shortly after the release of Spider Tales. He was prominently featured on NPR's Weekend Edition in a segment regarding traditional musicians and their efforts to address racism within the canon, and was interviewed by Hunter Kelly for Apple Music's Proud Radio show. The success of Spider Tales catapulted Blount onto the mainstream Americana touring circuit, leading to performances at venues including the Kennedy Center and the Newport Folk Festival. In early 2022, Blount released the single "The Man Was Burning" on Free Dirt Records. The song received positive coverage from NPR, and appeared on Spotify's list of the Best Blues Songs of 2022. Later that year, Blount made his Smithsonian Folkways debut with the Afrofuturist concept album The New Faith. The record, which incorporates rap, looping, digital processing and a wider array of instrumentation than his prior recorded works, represents a significant sonic and conceptual progression