A Jones County native who took time off from her career for her family has taken top awards in last month’s county awards in Georgia and is poised to break through to the national scene.
Stacey Blanton of Gray was named the Female Artist of the Year and Overall Artist of the Year at the 2025 Georgia Country Awards held Nov. 9 at the Southern Roots Tavern in McDonough.
According to the Georgia- country.com website, fan voting is 50 percent of the points for each nominee, and grades from a panel consisting of leaders in the music business in Georgia are the other 50 percent. Panel members grade each nominee on their social media page, number of shows, website, videos and all nominees are graded on their stage performances.
In the finals, all finalists are eligible for “Overall Artist of the Year.” That award is not fan voted on, but the panel awards the artist that they feel has done the most in 2025 to advance their career.
The bottom line is it’s a hardfought competition that begins in June and ends in October.
Blanton grew up in Jones County and attended Jones County High School, where she met her husband, David. The couple has three children: Daisy, Dallas and Barrett, ages 18, 14 and 7.
Stacey is the daughter of Renee and Michael Barreth.
She said she was in shock when she won.
“I was up against some talented people, but I put in the hard work to prove I could do it for my kids,” she said.
Blanton said she started playing the guitar and singing when she was 12 and continued on and off.
She may be familiar to some because of a song she wrote, “I’m From Gray,” that went viral in 2016. Her youngest child was born in 2017. That and the pandemic put her career on hold.
“I was a stay-at-home mom, but I started singing again the last two years,” Blanton said. “I decided it was time to chase my career dreams.”
She picked up her guitar and recently began taking voice lessons.
Blanton started by playing local restaurants and venues in Gray and Macon. She also started playing with a few bands and made some music videos.
She said Greg Parker with Wide Open Entertainment came to see her, and she started singing with his band, “The JC Boys.”
“I’ve been posting cover songs and was nominated for the contest in the spring.”
Blanton said she was on WDEN every couple of months, which helped her receive the most votes. The singer has 100,000 listeners on Spotify.
The hope is that winning the contest will open bigger opportunities for her, such as opening for other acts. She has already been invited to play at the WESA Trade Show that is a huge event in Dallas in January.
Blanton said she hopes to put out more new music in the new year and plans to have a special local performance this spring.
For more information about the performer, visit her website, staceyblanton.com or Facebook page Stacey Blanton Music.
