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Meet Tony Don Tracy, previously Tony Tracy, a life-long music man who began performing at age 10 when he was a fifth grader in elementary school.

He was born in Moose Lake, Minn., on April 4, 1959, to Don and Jane Tracy and raised in the small town of Kettle River, where his dad worked for the Rural Electric Association.

In reminiscing about his youth, Tony says it was the best childhood ever, especially at Christmas, which was like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. There were Christmas lights and decorations arched above the main street and big fat snowflakes creating a classic holiday scene.

Back in those days, he recalls, Kettle River was a happening place with many services provided by cooperatives — grocery store, gas station, fuel oil, feed store — along with a lumberyard, pool hall, car dealership and, of course, a bar. But, he observed, it’s nothing like that today, with virtually no businesses left, only a bar and even that was gone for a time.

Back then he had the freedom to explore the countryside to his heart’s content.

Tony said he was in a class of 10 (there was only one girl!) at the Kettle River Elementary School and that it was the last class before the school closed for good. It was here that the band director from the Moose Lake school would come to teach music one day a week and got him playing the trumpet. He and three of his classmates comprised the exceedingly small school band.

He said his early homelife was not especially musical but his mom sang, her favorite song being the 1945 “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?” while his father was simply into listening to music. It was after his father died that he changed his name from Tony Tracy to Tony Don Tracy as a way to honor him.

Tony’s first guitar was an Airline acoustic, which he received as a Christmas present in 1968. He says it sat in the closet for a few months, but when a pal also got a guitar, the two of them learned three or four chords from that boy’s older brothers. A Mel Bay guitar lessons book was also a guide. Pretty soon they were off and running, forming the Kettle River Ramblers, made up of three guys and two sisters who sang. All this while still in grade school!

He was shy about singing but said over time got used to it (so much so he won a statewide vocal competition while in high school).

When he was just 13 years old the Ramblers opened for Tanya Tucker (who was also just 13) at the 1972 Carlton County Fair. However, they did not get to meet her.

The group also had a guest appearance on KDAL’s Town and Country Show with Dottie Becker, which was a local favorite of housewives back in the day. 

Kettle River Ramblers

Even while Tony was playing with the Kettle River Ramblers in various low-key situations like PTA meetings, his musical outlets included singing in his high school choir and continuing to play the trumpet. This latter ability had him playing “Taps” at funerals and Memorial Day services for the American Legion.

A milestone gig was when the Ramblers played at a Golden Guernsey Breeder’s Meeting in Barnum, at which they were “discovered” by Rick and Bebe Allen/Svenddal. That led to them becoming charter members of the North Country Shindig, an Opry-style review produced by the Allens held on Saturday nights at the National Guard Armory in Cloquet from 1973-76.

While still in high school Tony first saw Whiskey River play at Central Hall on Highway 210 (west of Carlton) and later at Charlie’s Bar and Grill in Duluth (it was lost to fire in 2006). He was so impressed by them it spurred his musical aspirations.

By 1975 the Allens started booking him into Duluth area clubs such as the Western Tavern, together with a mix of lead guitarists, bass players and drummers. Even though he was under age, he was tall enough that he passed!

After graduation from high school, Tony enrolled in the police training course at Hibbing Vo-Tech, thinking it was a path to helping people, but quickly realized it wasn’t for him.

During this time he would drive down on weekends to Superior, Wis. to see the Fadness Brothers (Dick and Larry) play at The Cove. Tony said watching them was like going to school for performance art. He quit the police training program after the first year to return to playing music with his new band The Wells Fargo Express, a lucrative alternative.

Wells Fargo Express

Eventually Wells Fargo Express became the house band at Charlie’s. It played for four hours, five nights a week for five months — something he said was essential for a band to get tight.

After that he played with several other bands, too numerous to list.

At some point, after these grueling gigs, Tony shifted his attention from music back to education, enrolling at St. Cloud State College in 1979 with a major in American Studies. He followed that with graduate studies in Public History there.

To further explore alternative careers, he became an assistant defensive line coach with SCSU’s football team, remaining in that position through 1991. Once again, though, music beckoned and he pursued it full-time with his band Dacotah.

Dacotah played a five-state area, recorded two albums (on CDs) and opened for more than 30 national touring acts during the 1991-1997 timeframe, generally at the Medina Ballroom where big stars were booked. Some of these included the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Everly Brothers, George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and many more.

Tony said one of the reasons they got these opener gigs was they had their own professional PA (public address) system, thus the bands didn’t have to employ a separate production company.

After gaining wider recognition, Tony was looking for a record deal. At the time moving to Nashville was the way to accomplish that, which he did.

Tony performing solo at a Ukraine benefit.

Once there, he was employed by the Nashville-based Drumfire Publishing Co., where he wrote music, both lyrics and melodies, for others to record. While employed by Drumfire, the cost of his personal demo recordings were covered as he tried for that elusive record deal.

However, the position didn’t allow him to earn a sufficient living so, in 1998, he took a day job as operations manager with Signature Flight Support in Nashville.

A tragic event in the wee hours of June 28, 1997, (following the night of the Mike Tyson “Bite Fight”) derailed his dreams for a time: Tony was in a major car crash involving a drunken driver. It resulted with him having a broken back and other life-threatening injuries that kept him hospital bound for 10 days and in a “turtle brace” as he returned to work.

He remained with Signature Flight Support in successively more responsible positions. By 2003 he was transferred to Austin, Texas, to take a job as general manager of its facility there. This time he juggled his day job with moonlighting with a new band he formed: Uncle Lucky.

A corporate shakeup in 2011 led to Tony being let go from Signature in July of that year. With his parents getting older, he felt it was time to return to Minnesota and to Duluth.

Interestingly, it was shortly after his return to Minnesota, with 40-plus years of playing country rock with multiple bands, that Tony was inducted as a solo artist into the Mid-America Country and Rock Hall of Fame (now Mid-America Music Hall of Fame) in 2012.

Despite that honor, he again needed to have a day job, so he took a position with Walmart in Hermantown as an “Asset Protection Manager,” in which he remained for four years.

After that, able to use his educational background in history, he was hired as the Museum Director for the Douglas County Historical Society, a position he held through the end of 2018. During this time, he reformed his band Uncle Lucky and at last, in 2022, he signed with Kings Rest Records out of Zimmerman, Minn. (You can find recordings by him on YouTube under Tony Don Tracy.)

Still, a day job was necessary, so he took a job as a benefit advocate with United Health Care until he took early retirement in 2024 to take care of his widowed mom. That same year he joined the Whiskey River…downstream band as bass player and vocalist.

As Tony looked back over his musical journey he told me his early musical influences were Kiss (in high school), Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark and Joe Ely. Though he claims to be a shy person, he’s comfortable being onstage and newly comfortable with his singing voice.

When I asked about the guitars he’s owned he provided a list that includes a Les Paul Gibson, Telecaster, Fender Jazz Bass, Ovation 12-string, Ibanez SR series 4-string bass, and Ibanez SR series 5-string bass.

Currently he owns a 1998 Model D-03 Larrivee acoustic guitar (bought in Nashville), Epiphone EJ-200, a Fender Telecaster covered in leather ala Waylon Jennings and, with Whiskey River, he plays a Schecter Hellraiser 5-string bass with a 500 Watt Ampeg RB-210 Combo bass amp.

If you were at the West Theatre for its show on June 26, 2025, you would have seen him in action.

Since then Dave Waggoner, a long-time member of Whiskey River, died and Albert Svenddal (son of Rick and Bebe Allen/Svenddal) has joined the group playing pedal steel guitar.

Next week you will be able to see and hear Tony Don Tracy as part of this hard drivin’ country-rock band in its return to the West on May 13.

If you are at all a fan of this genre, you won’t want to miss it. See you there!