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15-year-old may hold the ‘key’ to the music business
Oct 7, 2009 12:00 AM
By Tannika King - Faculty
Written by Joni Harbin, Calhoun Times, published 10/3/2009
Tanna Key is only 15 years old, but when she breezes in with a debut CD in her back pocket, pulls out her guitar and launches into a bar-the-doors ballad she composed herself, nobody thinks much about the fact that she’s little older than a child.
Children don't look like Tanna Key, they don't write and sing like Tanna Key and they certainly don't perform with the level of flair and confidence that Tanna Key demonstrates. She just wrapped up a flurry of recording sessions and industry experiences that immersed her in Nashville's music environment and put her squarely on track for the career she's planning in entertainment. Today, she came to play, but make no mistake about it: today and tomorrow, she means business.
Her roots in this community are just as deep as her interest in music. She is the maternal grand-daughter of Bob and Carol Nance, the paternal granddaughter of Frank Key and Peggy Brown, and the oldest of Dan and Carrie Key's three daughters. She is a member of Gordon County's sprawling Chitwood family, and is a removed cousin of Monty Powell, who left Calhoun years ago and firmly established himself as a major presence in Nashville's thriving music industry.
Key has been a serious voice student for several years, having studied under Tricia Grey, an ad-vocate of the speech level singing technique developed by the legendary Seth Riggs, who has coached more than a hundred Grammy winners, including Barbara Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, and the late Michael Jackson, but she dreams of a song-writing career.
"First and foremost, songwriting is my priority, but the reason I write songs is because I want people to hear them, so singing them is an obvious pleasure. I still have all my original composition tablets and right now the one I'm filling is a really cool Vera Bradley number that my mom's best friend Stacie Jacobs gave me," Key said with a little giggle that reminds you she is too young to vote. "These days, anybody who gives me an empty notebook is my hero because I write by hand and that really uses up some paper!"
Determined to pitch her music in Nashville and dreaming of attending the Country Music Televi-sion Awards show in Nashville this past June, Key convinced her parents she was committed to her music by presenting five self-written, record-ready songs before they agreed that she could abandon her considerable extracurricular activities at Darlington School in Rome, Ga., and head to the country music capital of the world. She wound up missing the awards show she dreamed of at-tending for a pretty good reason: on the day it aired, she was recording her debut CD in a Nashville recording studio.
In a subsequent trip to Nashville just weeks later, Key hit pay dirt. On July 27, she took her chance at a spot on the historic Bluebird Cafe's Open Mic Night and was lucky enough to make it onstage, where she belted out a couple numbers to an enthusiastic crowd which included industry professionals and other aspiring artists. The very next night, she delivered a double round at the Douglas Corner Cafe, which has been a showcase venue for stars including Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood and Blake Shelton and is where Garth Brooks held his first official fan club party.
Key was featured as a new artist on Chattanooga's US 101 "Backwoods Country Show" in August and will be playing at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 2009. Her tracks are playing on both WEBS and WJTH in Gordon County and she's currently negotiating a contract with SeSac, the fastest growing of three Performing Rights Organizations with headquarters in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Miami and London.
She has two performances scheduled in Calhoun on Oct. 24: at noon, she will perform at the Cal-houn Recreation Pavilion in an Alzheimer's fundraising event and at 2:15, she will perform at Main Street Partnership's Harvest Fest event. Watch her where you can find her, because one thing is certain: if she is singing, she will be right on key.
Tanna Key is only 15 years old, but when she breezes in with a debut CD in her back pocket, pulls out her guitar and launches into a bar-the-doors ballad she composed herself, nobody thinks much about the fact that she’s little older than a child.
Children don't look like Tanna Key, they don't write and sing like Tanna Key and they certainly don't perform with the level of flair and confidence that Tanna Key demonstrates. She just wrapped up a flurry of recording sessions and industry experiences that immersed her in Nashville's music environment and put her squarely on track for the career she's planning in entertainment. Today, she came to play, but make no mistake about it: today and tomorrow, she means business.
Her roots in this community are just as deep as her interest in music. She is the maternal grand-daughter of Bob and Carol Nance, the paternal granddaughter of Frank Key and Peggy Brown, and the oldest of Dan and Carrie Key's three daughters. She is a member of Gordon County's sprawling Chitwood family, and is a removed cousin of Monty Powell, who left Calhoun years ago and firmly established himself as a major presence in Nashville's thriving music industry.
Key has been a serious voice student for several years, having studied under Tricia Grey, an ad-vocate of the speech level singing technique developed by the legendary Seth Riggs, who has coached more than a hundred Grammy winners, including Barbara Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, and the late Michael Jackson, but she dreams of a song-writing career.
"First and foremost, songwriting is my priority, but the reason I write songs is because I want people to hear them, so singing them is an obvious pleasure. I still have all my original composition tablets and right now the one I'm filling is a really cool Vera Bradley number that my mom's best friend Stacie Jacobs gave me," Key said with a little giggle that reminds you she is too young to vote. "These days, anybody who gives me an empty notebook is my hero because I write by hand and that really uses up some paper!"
Determined to pitch her music in Nashville and dreaming of attending the Country Music Televi-sion Awards show in Nashville this past June, Key convinced her parents she was committed to her music by presenting five self-written, record-ready songs before they agreed that she could abandon her considerable extracurricular activities at Darlington School in Rome, Ga., and head to the country music capital of the world. She wound up missing the awards show she dreamed of at-tending for a pretty good reason: on the day it aired, she was recording her debut CD in a Nashville recording studio.
In a subsequent trip to Nashville just weeks later, Key hit pay dirt. On July 27, she took her chance at a spot on the historic Bluebird Cafe's Open Mic Night and was lucky enough to make it onstage, where she belted out a couple numbers to an enthusiastic crowd which included industry professionals and other aspiring artists. The very next night, she delivered a double round at the Douglas Corner Cafe, which has been a showcase venue for stars including Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood and Blake Shelton and is where Garth Brooks held his first official fan club party.
Key was featured as a new artist on Chattanooga's US 101 "Backwoods Country Show" in August and will be playing at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 2009. Her tracks are playing on both WEBS and WJTH in Gordon County and she's currently negotiating a contract with SeSac, the fastest growing of three Performing Rights Organizations with headquarters in Nashville, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, Miami and London.
She has two performances scheduled in Calhoun on Oct. 24: at noon, she will perform at the Cal-houn Recreation Pavilion in an Alzheimer's fundraising event and at 2:15, she will perform at Main Street Partnership's Harvest Fest event. Watch her where you can find her, because one thing is certain: if she is singing, she will be right on key.
