For all of our country music fans, here's a reader email about rising country star Tracy Stefans, of Racine:
Hi! I wanted to let you know about Tracy Stefans from Racine who will be going to Nashville March 21 as a Regional Finalist for the Nashville Star reality TV series.
Tracy Stefans, 40, lives in Racine and has been singing country music for years. He was lead signer for the band Great Guns, which won Wisconsin Area Music Industry Country Group of the Year six times, and won the People's Choice award. Tracy has also been nominated for WAMI's Male Vocalist of the Year multiple times.
Tracy auditioned at the open auditions in Milwaukee in February, and made it to the second round along with his son, Tyler, a 16-year-old junior at Horlick. They auditioned and sang solo and as a duet in front of the Nashville Star producers. They were told they would be notified in a few weeks if they made it to the next round. Tracy got the email last week informing him that he had been chosen as a regional finalist from among thousands of singers who had auditioned. He will be traveling back to Nashville next week for the National round.
Tracy has tried out for Nashville Star multiple times in the past few years, even traveling to Chicago and Nashville. He slept overnight on the street in Nashville for tryouts a few years ago, and ended up singing on the Nashville news.
Nashville Star was broadcast on the USA channel for the past five years, and has produced some nationally known singers such as Buddy Jewel, Miranda Lambert and Chris Young. This year the series is moving to NBC for broadcast this summer. The winner of Nashville Star gets a recording contract and gets to sing at the Olympics in China.
As lead singer of Great Guns, Tracy has opened for just about every national artist from Tim McGraw, Montgomery Gentry, Brooks and Dunn to Reba and Blackhawk. Last year Tracy left the band to pursue a solo musical career. He went to Nashville to record his debut CD, Country Rock Star, which was produced by Henry Paul (lead singer of country group Blackhawk, and the legendary southern rockers The Outlaws.) The entire band of Blackhawk played on the CD, and did the harmony vocals. Tracy was excited to include his 9-year-old daughter, Taylor Anne, a Fine Arts School student, on the title track.
Tracy just returned from The Country Radio Seminar in Nashville last week where he did interviews supporting his CD, and mingled with some of country's hottest stars. Last week, Tracy was nominated for WAMI's Country Artist of the Year, and the CD has been nominated for WAMI's CD of the Year.
Tracy's CD is available on itunes, CDBaby and Rhapsody.com. You can check out his tunes on MySpace or his website
We asked Tracy's wife, Lori, for some more information about him and she replied:
Tracy is married (to his wonderful talented wife, Lori ...he he he.. that would be me) for almost 20 years. He has two children who are also both musically inclined. Tyler, 16, is in his own rock band, but plays guitar in Tracy's band too. (His motto is "Will country for money, will rock for free!") Taylor, 9, has been singing onstage since she was 4. She has sung on CMT, GAC and local news, and has been a featured singer at Chick Singer Night-Milwaukee. Both kids are currently in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Horlick.
Tracy has lived in Racine since 2000 and in Racine County since 1995. He is a mechanical designer who has worked at various companies, but due to the decline of engineering jobs in the area (he worked at Bosch until they closed) he is working for Verizon as a retail sales associate. The good thing about that job is that it gives him the flexibility to do gigs on the weekends, and travel to Nashville.
Tracy is currently booking for the summer festival season. He regularly plays big events like Summerfest, Country USA, West Allis Western Days etc., and his music has been heard in The Netherlands, Australia, France and England.
No comments:
Post a Comment