Biography

Stacy Grubb grew up in the Appalachian hills of southern West Virginia in McDowell County where she first started performing music as a toddler when her dad, Alan Johnston, used to sit her atop their piano. He'd play the hymns she was learning in Sunday school as she would sing with one of her sisters. Alan was certainly her earliest musical influence, but soon to follow was Dolly Parton.

Stacy grew up listening primarily to contemporary Christian music and was introduced to classic country through Alan who would sing to her the songs he remembered loving as a child. Her dad and Dolly remain as two of her biggest inspirations to this day.

Around middle school, Stacy became interested in songwriting and spent most of her teen years honing her writing skills, as well as her vocal control and technique. Her writing has, without a doubt, been heavily influenced by the country tunes of the 50's and 60's she remembered her dad singing to her when she was a young girl. "Dad would sing those sad songs and tell me about how he and my grandma would sit around the record player and just cry and cry listening to them. They loved it and I did, too. It just made sense to me that a song's worth should be measured by how sad it can make you feel! I eventually learned that not everyone agrees with that idea. I still love sad songs, though." She jokes
that, whenever she feels the tears coming on when she's writing a new song, she knows she's onto something.

In 2004, Stacy joined her dad's music group, South 52 (then known as The McDowell County Project), after having spent the previous four years working as a veterinarian assistant in Knoxville, Tennessee. "I was so thrilled to be in Dad's group for about a
million different reasons, not the least of which being the fact that it's such a special thing
to be able to share with your dad. But I'd never had the opportunity to perform on a regular basis and we were booking shows pretty often. It was all just local stuff, but we had so much fun with it and I learned a lot about stage presence to boot." Stacy still performs regularly with her dad.

In the meantime, Stacy has picked up a lot of musical influences along the way, including artists like Alison Krauss, Ron Block, Julie Lee, Mindy Smith, Miranda Lambert, Waylon Jennings, Goose Creek Symphony, Don Rigsby, Crooked Still, Dailey & Vincent and the list is ever-growing. "Music is such a gift," she says. "It's so special. I can't explain how
grateful I am to play some part in the making of it. The music that I love just leaves me feeling like I don't even know what to do with myself when I'm listening to it. For me, that's what's so special about the folks I list as 'influences.' They're out there doing something that just slays me when I hear it. Voices that I could go swimming in.

Lyrics that make me want to write better. Melodies that take over my head completely. Arrangements that make me want to be like, 'Heck yeah, man!' People think I'm crazy sometimes...and maybe I am. But gosh, I really don't care. If I am, I'm glad for it!" She also says that music connects her to her heritage, to a fiddlin' papaw she never got to meet, as well as to the future generations she won't get a chance to meet. "Very few things in this life have the ability to do all the things that music can do. I'm a fanatic, I know. It's just a part of me people have to deal with."

Stacy was recently honored to be named a memener of the historic Wheeling Jamboree, an undeniable influene in the country music industry.

Stacy's parents are Alan and Wilma Johnston. She has two sisters and one brother, as well as six nieces and nephews. She is married to her high school sweetheart and they share a son together.