Meet The Blogger

Tracey Stones, Blogger

Since 2015, I have been hyper-focused on blogging about the local music scene throughout North Carolina. In 2018, I was nominated for 52 Faces of Community, because my efforts are mostly volunteer. When I started, I did not know the great task I was taking on, but now that I am more than a decade in, it’s thrilling to cover the musicians who make and share their music with us, and be recognized for it.

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Writer

Before graduating from Union County College in Cranford, NJ, with my associate’s degree in communications and liberal arts, I started writing for the publication I read religiously as a teen during my internship. I became a paid employee of Arts Weekly, Inc., in 1994 and wrote several weekly columns for the company, starting in March, when I took over the column Bea Flatte, which had appeared in The Aquarian Weekly.

After my internship ended, the company hired me to publish a weekly blues column, Boogie n Blues, that covered the regional and national blues circuit. During these formative years, I honed my interview skills by speaking with Buddy, Guy, BB King, Jeff Healey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Mick Taylor, and many other notable artists.

Crossroads: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, published on August 23, 1995.

The article is listed in Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Day by Day, Night After Night: His Final Years 1983-1990. Two years later, Arts Weekly, Inc. offered me another column opportunity for their publication, The East Coast Rocker. Backyard Boogie n Blues featured news about local rock and blues acts. In addition to my regular columns, I wrote several band profiles of local and regional acts, published in Twist & SHOUT, another Arts Weekly gem.

In 1997, I accepted another column when the editor of Tri-State Blues offered me a column for their monthly publication. In August 1997, The Tracey Stones Zone was first penned. I would write for that monthly publication for two years. The other monthly publication to pick up my column was MusicHead Magazine, based in Stroudsburg, PA, which also featured and syndicated it.

Radio DJ

In September 1996, I debuted on air at 88.9 FM WBZC in Burlington County. The Tracey Stones Zone, Your Ticket To Ride, a monthly feature show tied to my monthly columns. I interviewed the national artists touring the area and promoting shows in NJ/NY/DE and PA. It was a short but fun stint. I hosted only six shows.