Chalee Tennison Bio

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It’s not simply that Chalee Tennison is a world-class country singer. Nor is it merely that she’s a gifted songwriter. The power of this artist is based on something much more – her charisma is founded on her honesty. In a world of manufactured images, Chalee (pronounced Shuh-LEE) Tennison is the real deal.

You can hear that in every note of Parading In The Rain, her DreamWorks Records debut album (set for release in summer of 2003). These are the songs of a living, breathing woman.

The power ballad “I Am Pretty” finds a wife gathering the strength to leave an abusive relationship. The upbeat “Believe” portrays a survivor on the battlefield of love. Chalee unleashes a pillar-of-fire performance on “I Am Love” and raises her voice in eyes-wide-open optimism on “Raining On My Parade.” And whether describing the steamy romance of “Cheater’s Road” or singing a sassy kiss-off in “Me And Mexico,” she pours believability into every line.

The women in these songs aren’t fantasy figures; they’re flesh-and-blood characters who suffer through divorce, like in “More To This Than That,” and fight back, like in the stomping rocker (and first radio track) “Lonesome Road.” They are mothers who celebrate their children, as Chalee does in “Easy Lovin’ You,” the second radio track off Parading In The Rain (and the recording debut of her eldest daughter, teenager Tiffany, who provides harmony vocals). And they are everyday folks who sometimes just long for solace. When Chalee sings, “Say a prayer tonight for peace,” in “Peace,” one is moved to do exactly that.

Perhaps most telling, though, is what she has to say about “The Mind Of This Woman”: “When I lay down at night, my brain doesn’t stop. I’ve got 15 million things on my mind and I go from one scene to another. That’s how I think. That’s how women think.”

It hardly comes as a surprise when Chalee states: “My music comes from my life. And it means so much to me when fans use words like ‘real’ and ‘honest.’ Those are the values I grew up with. My grandmother taught me to be honest above all else. So what you get from me is the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts.”

Indeed, Chalee makes no bones about who she is and who she isn’t. “I can’t be any other way than I am,” she insists. “I’m 33 years old. I’m not a size two. I’m a mother of three. I’ve been divorced and hurt. I’m a big crier, but I can cry, wipe the tears away and come out fighting. That’s what I’m made of. I’m glad I’ve ended up where I am. I think I’m blessed.”

Much of Chalee’s appeal to fans comes from her creative ability to share these bedrock experiences and feelings: “Nothing makes me prouder than to hear someone say, ‘Oh, I’ve felt that way – that’s me, too, in your song.’ We are all kindred spirits.”

And spirits of all sorts have flocked to Chalee Tennison. She has silenced brawlers in the toughest Texas beerhalls and brought Japanese listeners who couldn’t even speak English to tears. Mothers have named babies for her. People have said her performances saved their marriages or served as therapy for other problems. Everyone from George Jones to the cast of the “Grand Ole Opry” has become a Chalee Tennison supporter.

“When I asked [Parading In The Rain producer and DreamWorks Nashville head] James Stroud why he signed me, he said, ‘Because I believe in you.’ Those simple words were so powerful to me – ‘I believe in you.’ That’s why I gave this record my all.”

Her “all” draws on a lifetime of turbulence. Chalee and her twin brother, plus an older brother and sister, were uprooted throughout their childhoods. The family moved so often to different Texas towns that much of her schooling is a blur. Her mother, a nurse, was divorced three times. Chalee did not know her biological father until she was 15.

At some point, the troubled girl became a teenage runaway. She was married and a mother by the time she graduated from high school (cum laude, miraculously). By then, she’d worked as a convenience-store clerk and an electrician’s helper – she can still rewire just about anything. And she’s no stranger to working several jobs at once.

There have been constants in her life, however, namely the emotional support of her grandmother and a deep love of music. She and her sister formed a duet that entertained at family get-togethers, and Chalee began writing lyrics at age 13.

“Tammy Wynette was a huge influence on me,” she says. “It wasn’t just her music, though; it was her life and the honesty she showed in talking about it. I gained strength in that. It made me feel good about what I wanted to do, what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. She opened her life up to the world. I have to do that, too.”

Following her divorce, Chalee fought for custody of her daughter Tiffany and won. She married a second time, took a job in the children’s section of a department store, then worked as a supermarket checker. Next she became a guard at the maximum-security women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas. She met her third husband when his band entertained at the guards’ Christmas party. Not long afterward, she started fronting that Waco-based group, Midnight Rodeo. She was 21 at the time.

But, during the 1990s, Chalee did more than sing lead in her husband’s band: She was a substitute teacher, hung drywall at construction sites and worked as a waitress. She also had two more kids, daughter Haley and son Tyler.

As far as her vocation, however, music was all she wanted to do. So she began making trips to Nashville in 1996. A 10-song tape recorded in Music City caught the ear of Jerry Taylor of Sony/Tree Publishing. He began using Chalee as a demo singer for his writers’ songs whenever she was in town, then signed her to a Tree songwriting contract of her own. In the wake of her third divorce, in 1998, the single mother of three decided it was now or never and moved to Nashville.

“I’ll never forget it,” she says. “I arrived on June 1 at 4:00 a.m. with the U-Haul. My manager and his wife had picked out a house for me to rent. It was the only real house I’d ever lived in as an adult. I grew up in trailer homes and apartments. I’m used to being poor, so I’m not a big spender. If I see things I want, I make ‘em – I bought me a sewing machine and a glue gun.”

But Chalee didn’t just gain a sense of comfort in this house. “Out of all the jobs I’ve had, my very best one is being a mom. Our house was a house full of love,” she says. “Our life there was an amazing transformation from what I used to have.”

In 1999, increasing confidence in the studio and a handful of original compositions led to Chalee’s first recording contract. She co-wrote her debut single, “Someone Else’s Turn To Cry,” the video for which was widely seen, as were those for the songs “Handful Of Water” and “Just Because She Lives There.” The three tracks – all modest radio successes – formed the core of the singer-songwriter’s debut album, Chalee Tennison.

Chalee soon began making regular appearances on the “Grand Ole Opry.” People and Country Weekly noted the newcomer’s earthy style and remarkable candor. She was chosen as the opening act for George Jones and was nominated as Top New Female Vocalist of 2000 by the Academy Of Country Music.

Her second album, This Woman’s Heart, was a strong showcase for her songcraft; she co-wrote seven of its tunes, including the title cut and the powerfully autobiographical “I’m Healing” and “Yes I Was.” The sexy “Makin’ Up With You” resulted in her fourth single and video, and in early 2001 the touching ballad “Go Back” became her biggest hit to date (reaching the Top 40 of Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart).

Meanwhile, something extraordinary was taking place in Chalee’s personal life. During her 2000 tour, the guitarist in her band, Mark Gillespie, began courting her. At first she resisted.

“I was gun shy, to say the least,” she admits. “Plus, I’d vowed never to date a musician again. When Mark first started playing in my band, I thought, ‘What a sweet, gentle, kind man.’ But when he pursued me, it was, ‘You’re a musician – leave me alone.’ He was so charming, though, that eventually I said I’d go out with him. Even then, I said, ‘You can’t handle my life. You’ve never been married. You don’t have kids. This is too much for you.’ After two months, he met the kids. He fell in love with them, and they fell in love with him. Well, that was it. In December he asked me to marry him.”

Chalee and Mark toured together throughout the following year and on Nov. 10, 2001, they married, in Tennessee’s Great Smokey Mountains. Tyler walked her down the aisle, Tiffany and Haley were her bridesmaids, and her friend Paul Brandt sang his song “I Do.” Two weeks later, James Stroud signed her to DreamWorks Records.

“My whole life is now a ‘second chance,’” she reflects. “Actually, maybe it’s a third chance … okay, maybe a fourth. Anyway, I’m so happy – I’m constantly jumping up and down inside. All I ever wanted to do was sing, and that’s why I think country music found me. I needed something to hold onto. I needed to find a way to express who I am, the real me, and that’s why this music is so important to me.”

For more information visit the Chalee Tennison website.


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