Tenney in the Key of Friendship

Table of Contents

• Studio Time
• Cousin Mina
• New Ideas
• A Big Opportunity
• Two Surprises
• In a Jam
• Really Listen
• Unexpected Harmony
• Double Booked
• Festival Lights
• Off-Tempo
• A Break in the Music
• An Unexpected Ally
• Making Amends
• Banding Together
• A Star on the Rise
• Singing to the Sky
• Next Steps

Studio Time

On the drive downtown, Tenney’s legs won’t stop jittering. Mom asks if she’s nervous, but Tenney insists she’s just excited. She and Mom are headed to Shake Rag Studios, where her friend, Portia Burns, is recording her new album. Tenney has played music for years with Dad’s band, the Tennessee Tri-Stars, but never in a professional studio.

Shake Rag Studios turns out to be a plain concrete building with just a golden guitar outline on the door. The receptionist recognizes Tenney’s name and lets Zane know the Grants have arrived. Zane Cale, owner of Mockingbird Records and Tenney’s mentor, greets them in one of his usual odd outfits. Tenney met Zane months earlier after performing a song she’d written at a showcase at the Bluebird Cafe. He didn’t offer her a record deal that day, but he came back weeks later asking to be her manager instead.

Zane leads them to a dim control room crowded with screens and dials. He introduces Rob, the sound engineer, and through a glass window, Portia sits in the recording booth with her guitar and headphones. Tenney and Portia met a few months ago, when Tenney’s class partnered with the Lillian Street Senior Center to plan a school Jamboree, and Portia, whose stage name is Patty Burns, helped Tenney polish the song she debuted at the Bluebird.

Over the studio speakers, Portia calls her “Miss Tennyson.” Portia admits she’s nervous being back in the studio since her stroke temporarily paralyzed her left hand, though months of practice have restored her playing. The recording begins, and to Tenney it sounds flawless. Zane disagrees, asking her to sing a part of the song with more edge, and Portia obliges. Tenney is baffled that a take Zane calls “great” still needs redoing. He explains a song can take dozens of passes, changing a breath or a held note, before it’s right. By the fourteenth take of the first verse, Zane is finally satisfied.

During a water break, Portia confides she wrote the song right after her stroke, when she could barely hold a chord and was furious, and that anger can fuel good music. She asks how Tenney’s songwriting is coming, since Zane has suggested they start working weekly at Portia’s house, and Tenney says she might have new material ready for Zane soon.

Tenney heads off to find the restroom, and one her way back, Tenney gets sidetracked by a poster of singer Belle Starr advertising the City Music Festival. She loses track of her turns. She pulls open a door and is hit by a wall of drumming—a boy about her age is pounding away at a full kit. He stops and asks who she is. She gives her name and asks his in return. He’s Logan, and he curtly asks what she’s doing in his rehearsal space. When she says she’s looking for Portia’s studio, he cuts her off. Portia obviously isn’t in here. Before Tenney can recover from the sting, Mom arrives, saying they need quick goodbyes since she has to drop Tenney at Jaya’s and get home for dinner. Mom asks who Tenney’s new friend is, and Tenney gives an awkward “Nice to meet you.” He just shrugs out a “Yeah, sure” and goes back to his drums.