By RON LANE
IT was the Tamworth Country Music Festival for 2016; home of the Golden Guitar Award and the major festival of its type in Australia.
Gathered on the main stage were the MC and a group of judges who had just handed the compere a note on which was written the names of the three place getters; in the final of Junior Aristocrat Entertainer of the Year.
Rated the biggest talent quest for juniors in Australia, it had been hotly contested with entertainers coming from all over this great country. First named was third place then second and finally the winners – from Tewantin in Queensland – the Dennis Sisters.
The unbelievable had happened. This unknown but very talented duo of Briannah and Tiana Dennis, professionally known as the Dennis Sisters, had achieved the ultimate and swept all before them.
For Brianna, 16, and Tiana, 15, it was an outstanding achievement.
From Briannah (affectionately known in the family as Bri): “I was shocked, it was unbelievable”. Add to this Tiana’s reaction: “Totally stunned; we would have been happy to just make the final.”
Apart from the result, they said it had been a great learning curve, watching and learning for 10 days.
Regarding the announcement, Lisa – the very proud mother – said: “We were near the back of the stage and when the girls missed out on the third and then second place, Tiana had turned her head and was just having a good look around. Then when they announced their name as winners she turned and the look on her face was worth its weight in gold – it made everything worthwhile.”
It all started some three years ago when the Dennis family, parents Mick and Lisa, daughters Briannah and Tiana, and son James – plus family friends – sat around a backyard barbecue to celebrate the 40th birthday of husband and father Mick.
The afternoon was a joyous occasion and to make it special, youngest daughter Tiana, then aged 12, was asked by family members to sing a song she had written. After some encouragement from all present she said yes and then proceeded to sing her song entitled, About Me.
Playing a guitar, an instrument on which she was self-taught, she sang. Among the family friends was a lady with a heavy musical background; having worked as a solo singer and back up for many artists of renown. Her name was Lease Vasey and, to say the least, she was very impressed.
At the end Lease insisted, after picking up on the quality of her first original song, that the family did something about this young girl. Another to be impressed was a lady from the RSL entertainment circuit known simply as Dell.
Following this advice and encouragement, 18 months ago Tiana took her first big step and joined the AICM (Australian Institute of Country Music) in Gympie.
In the meantime Brianna her older sister had ventured into the world of music by taking up saxophone lessons at primary school. However because of health reasons, she switched to the guitar and became self-taught on YouTube. Her next step was to follow Tiana and enroll as a member of the Gympie Academy.
Following this they started taking lessons from Caitlyn Shadbolt, another young new country singer from Gympie, who had made a name for herself performing on the X-Factor.
It was during this time that they met a man who was to play a major role in their musical career. His name was Dr Geoff Walden, a doctor of music, and he was known to one and all as Dr Rock.
He did a lot of work with the girls and it was on his advice that Bri, changed to base guitar, thus enabling them to form a duo.
For the girls it was Tiana who took the first step into the musical world of competition when, as a 14 year old in 2014, she competed as a solo artist at the Gympie Muster in the junior section. It was a great experience for two reasons. First was the fact that she made the final, and second that she sang on the main stage to a crowd of 2000 people.
When asked how she felt, her reply said it all.
“It was cool. I just said hullo and said I was going to sing for them; everything was just fine, I didn’t feel nervous.”
For someone just starting out her relaxed stage presence was in the words of some Gympie Academy people, incredible.
By 2015 the girls had formed a duo and this time made the opens of the Gympie Muster Talent Search. Now working more as a duo their confidence began to grow and this resulted in more gigs in clubs and hotels.
In 2015 came their first trip to the famous Tamworth. Both agreed that it was a fascinating experience. Working as a soloist at this stage,Tiana had the opportunity to take to the stage during breaks in Caitlyn Shadbolt’s act at major hotels.
“It was a great experience,” Tiana said. “I was learning all the time.”
Then in January 2016, all the study, hard work, and travel – not only for the girls but also parents Mike and Lisa – really paid dividends when they were announced as the winners of the Junior Aristocrat Entertainer of the Year.
Another member of the team who has made an outstanding contribution is producer and songwriter Jay Collie, one of those in the industry who has been signed by Sony Music.
Collie, who hails from Sydney, has visited Tewantin on two occasions thus enabling the girls to study with one of the best. It was Collie who produced Tianas first EP entitled, Tiana Dennis, a disc which contains three tracks – Anymore and Sometimes both written by Tiana, and The Other Side that she co-wrote with Collie.
Now Briannah, whose base guitar work during the Tamworth competition drew much praise from the judges, as she had only been playing 12 months, has also at 16 years of age embarked on a songwriting career. Between the two of them their number of originals are on the increase.
With their ongoing music studies at the Gympie Academy, songwriting and gigs on the increase, education in the normal school system has become almost impossible. To combat this they have now embarked on the Online Distant Education System plus certificate three in music at Tafe, thus ensuring that their education will not be neglected.
Bookings at such venues as Eumundies Green Room are starting to attract a following. If this is any indication then it seems safe to say that these two attractive quiet, well-mannered young ladies, are on the way to bigger things.
In our community – despite their youth – let us acknowledge them as Our People.
