Life & Work with Aaron Tracy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Tracy.

Hi Aaron, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started performing and getting into music when I was 8 years old. My parents were really into music so it came naturally to me. My dad ran sound for my mom who was in a traveling Christian quartet and was on various shows such as the Tennessee Barn Dance.

Throughout middle school and high school, I started writing my own music and performing for larger crowds as well as leading worship at my home church in Louisville, TN. I performed for my first 10,000+ crowd at the age of 16 and I also placed in the Top 16 Finalists of CMT’s 2009 Music City Madness Competition as a freshman at Alcoa High School.

I formed the first iteration of the Aaron Tracy Band in the Fall of 2012 while I was attending Maryville College as a Music Major. We began gigging more frequently around the Maryville, TN area and my name gained traction with local establishments. Knowing the itch to record original music was growing bigger, we signed a management deal with Houla Entertainment in Knoxville, TN.

This opened the doorway to Nashville for the band and me. Several trips to Nashville yielded us a meeting with acclaimed producer/engineer Pat Holt (James Taylor, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Keith Whitley, etc.)

We were also afforded the opportunity to perform at CMA Music Fest in 2013. During this time that the band began working alongside Pat Holt on our very first Studio Album. The album featured fan favorites such as “Cinnamon Sun”, “Whiskey River”, “Dancin’ In The Headlights”, and “Chillbilly”. It was recorded during the Winter of 2013/2014 and was released in April of 2014. The album initially did very well and received praise from local media calling us the “Zac Brown Band” of East TN.

The ATB continued our success with a new single entitled “You & Me” in 2015. The song did not receive airplay on any major radio stations but was one of the ATB’s biggest songs of their career. In early 2016, the Aaron Tracy Band disbanded and I continued on as a solo artist.

I decided to revamp my first song “Chillbilly” from the ATB album and release it as a single for country radio.

This was the first of two radio singles that exposed me to the rest of the world. “Chillbilly” was supported by a radio tour during the Spring and Summer of 2016 through Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It reached #25 in the USA and #11 in the UK for Most Downloaded New Country Song on Country Radio. “Timeless” soon followed with even more success charting in both the USA (#20) and the UK (#8) for the Most Downloaded Song on Country Radio.

As “Timeless” garnered airplay throughout the Country Scene, opportunities for greater-scale live shows began appearing for me. Between 2015-2017, I shared the bill with the likes of Trace Adkins, Sara Evans, John Michael Montgomery, Frankie Ballard, & William Michael Morgan.

Shortly following the success of my two latest singles, I started working on my next project featuring Travis Wyrick in the producer role. This project introduced two new songs, “Dreamboat” and “Goin’ Down South”. These songs in context with the “Timeless EP” revealed a new sound that had not been previously heard from me. With the help of Wyrick, my voice became stronger and more interesting by learning new ways of singing and building up my vocal stamina to new heights.

The Timeless EP was released in late 2016 and propelled me forward into recording my next single “Stay Home Tonight.” This single did not receive airplay but was featured as my first music video. After its release, I began to hone my craft more in the surrounding music scene and essentially dove into it headfirst for 3 years.

In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I released a never-before-heard song called “We Sing About Love.” The song was written back in 2016 but for years it sat in the catalog of my unreleased music. With the political and emotional climate of 2020, I felt it was the most appropriate time to release the song.

For the entirety of my career, I’ve kind of been like a lost puppy looking for its owner; jumping from genre to genre, looking for my sound. Every year, I’ve gotten closer to that sound. While artists always go through change, I feel like I have now found that sound and message I want to project.

I am currently working on my first full-length solo album which will be unlike anything anyone has heard before.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
While I do believe I have been blessed along the way, my road has not always been easy. Some of the challenges I have faced are included below:

I had gastrointestinal complications at birth and there was a risk of me not surviving the surgeries that were involved to keep me alive as a newborn baby. Thankfully, I pulled through.

When I was transitioning into my solo career, there was a tremendous lack of guitarists in my town that could achieve the sounds I was wanting to create. My guitarist quit just a few days before a big show in Knoxville and I had to teach myself how to be a lead guitarist in that very short amount of time.

And thus another aspect of my live performance was born.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am fully involved in many aspects of the music business. I have my own successful Wedding Cover Band called The GetUp. I am also the full-time worship leader at Valley Church in Hardin Valley, TN, an occasional worship leader at Cokesbury Church in Knoxville, TN’s Recovery Service, and a utility player for Rio Revolution Church in Maryville, TN.

I own a production company called Tailormade Productions and we produce shows of all sizes. Our largest show to date was a Two Day Music Festival called Wolfstock in Louisville, TN where the bill included Jake Owen, Billy Currington, Jordan Davis, Priscilla Block, Parmalee, and Lindsay Ell.

We have also produced shows for John Michael Montgomery and Sara Evans. My company also handles bookings for the Copper Cellar Family of Restaurants in the East TN area which includes roughly 14 locations.

I’ve often been told (about my live performances) that if John Mayer, Keith Urban, and Bruno Mars had a love child, It would be ME. I’m very mobile and movement-oriented on stage and every song tells a story that I use both my voice, guitar, and movement to tell.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’ve certainly had mainly good luck throughout my career.

Hard work is the biggest part but luck certainly landed me opportunities to travel to play festivals like MusicFest in Pennsylvania and CMA Fest. Moreso than luck though, my fans are who make it possible for me to do what I do.

Without them, I’m just another guy trying to do what he loves to no avail. And they give me music life.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.aarontracy.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/aarontracymusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/aarontracymusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaAkLaFLp8jQCU2wHEE5fuw