Sonoma County musician Linda Stonestreet was recently selected by Amazon Music to be included on its 2016 holiday playlist. Stonestreet’s original song “Christmas Time” will join approximately 30 tracks by a wide range of independent artists from across the country.
October 2016
Inclusion on the Amazon Prime playlist, curated by Amazon’s music experts, offers invaluable visibility for Stonestreet and her music to an international audience. The opportunity arose through the work of Creative Sonoma, a new County agency focused on supporting and advancing Sonoma’s creative community. Last spring, Creative Sonoma hosted Next Level: a Music Industry Showcase and Concert. At the event, keynote speaker Griff Morris, Sr. Manager of Artists and Industry at Amazon Music, committed to include one Sonoma track on this year’s holiday playlist. Creative Sonoma communicated the opportunity to local musicians and collected song submissions for Amazon, which then selected Stonestreet’s “Christmas Time.”
Stonestreet has been writing songs since she was in junior high, after studying with a particularly inspiring music teacher. But she wasn’t able to make it her full-time focus until she retired from her job at Cal Fire this year. “Christmas Time” was written as part of her healing process after her mother passed away. The bulk of Stonestreet’s career has been in the out-of-doors, including stints at Sugar Loaf, Jack London and Valley of the Moon Parks. That work ultimately reconnected her with the restorative power of bird songs and inspired her to use music as an expression of her re-awakening after the loss of her mother.
Stonestreet has more than 80 songs in her catalogue that she is just beginning to record. Her hope is that this recognition from Amazon Music will help bring new audiences to her music as well as potential collaborators to help her move this new chapter of her life forward. Stonestreet’s music can be found at www.lindastonestreet.com.