short Bio

Inspired by the stories of everyday life, Teni Rane is a singer-songwriter with a vintage vocal edge and a knack for capturing ordinary scenes in a way that is at once specific and widely relatable. Comfortable in everything from overalls to full-body sequins, Rane isn’t afraid to explore musical territory and synthesizes vocal influences from Patsy Cline and Norah Jones to Stevie Nicks and Lady Gaga. The result is her own brand of country-infused folk rock with a jazzy vocal lean that feels simultaneously familiar and brand new.

Photos

Teni Rane

Photo by Jess Astacio

Teni Rane

Photo by Jess Astacio

Teni Rane

Photo by Jess Astacio

Music

Goldenrod

Teni Rane

There is something reassuring about the waltz of a field of goldenrod in the late summer - the bees and the breeze and the slow mirage of time like heat rising off a curving road winding high into the mountains. A feeling that the moment might be capturable, maintainable, fixed in a golden memory. The in-between moments in the seasons are my
There is something reassuring about the waltz of a field of goldenrod in the late summer - the bees and the breeze and the slow mirage of time like heat rising off a curving road winding high into the mountains. A feeling that the moment might be capturable, maintainable, fixed in a golden memory. The in-between moments in the seasons are my favorites. When the blinding heat of summer is fighting the giving way to gusty autumn evenings and bright crisp mornings. As much as I enjoy the tension of those moments in nature, I am less of a fan of it in my own life. Change - even chosen, planned for change - is incredibly difficult for me. My fears always seem to center on “what else is going to change in my life if I go through with this? Who and what might I lose?”. Moving through change and fear and continuing to find stability inside those moments feels key to me. “Goldenrod” holds both certitude and utter fear in the same broad armed embrace.
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Meet Me in Stockholm

Teni Rane

6 years ago I had a chance to continue my soccer career for a season after finishing my university eligibility (go Razorbacks!) on a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea called Gotland. It’s a very beautiful place and I enjoyed so much having the chance to be there and meet new folks and learn to love soccer again. At the same time I was really quite
6 years ago I had a chance to continue my soccer career for a season after finishing my university eligibility (go Razorbacks!) on a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea called Gotland. It’s a very beautiful place and I enjoyed so much having the chance to be there and meet new folks and learn to love soccer again. At the same time I was really quite homesick and I struggled with the dichotomy of feeling really lonely and sad while I was having this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience of playing semi-pro soccer abroad. I felt so guilty because often the narrative in our world is “you should be so happy” in whatever experience or place you are in - especially if it is something like getting to live and play a sport abroad. In a lot of ways I was really lucky to know that my family was going to have a chance to come visit and that my then-partner-now-spouse was also going to have a chance to visit. I was counting down the days!! The chorus of the song bubbled out first (I was going to travel to the mainland to meet Jonathan in Stockholm and then travel back to the island with him) and I was really hesitant with it because I thought “well it’s totally silly to put Swedish in one of my songs - I barely know ANY Swedish.” After a while I allowed myself to lean into it and the feelings of distance and time separating me from the homey and familiar feeling of being wrapped in my best friend’s arms and accepted playing with the language. Even though the song has a longing and melancholy note and feel to it, it became a really sweet and amazing memory of my individual experience there and also our time there together. I’ve since gotten a bit better at Swedish and have enjoyed learning more of the language over time. In the chorus of the song there are two simple phrases - jag älskar dig means “I love you” and kommer du is a question: “are you coming?” So you get a song and a Swedish lesson :)
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Tennessee Snow

Teni Rane

Just like every aspect of life, snow is fleeting. It comes in a fresh blanket one day and stays for just a little while. Even when you feel like the brown slush in the roads will be around forever, slowly, slowly, slowly, it disappears. And then one day it is spring and then summer and snow seems like the furthest possible thing away from the day.
Just like every aspect of life, snow is fleeting. It comes in a fresh blanket one day and stays for just a little while. Even when you feel like the brown slush in the roads will be around forever, slowly, slowly, slowly, it disappears. And then one day it is spring and then summer and snow seems like the furthest possible thing away from the day. Fall comes back around and if you are patient, the snow will come again in the winter. In Tennessee it doesn’t snow all that much. We get a dusting a few times a year and some years we get lucky enough to get that full, crisp, white blanket that softens the world and quiets the streets and slows down the rush of everyday traffic. It comes and then it goes - melting back into the world. Tennessee Snow buries the rush of the holiday season under fresh snowfall and spends time enjoying a slower moment making memories and promising to hold onto the love of the season even when the snow and the season fade away.

Sometimes songs fight you. This one did for a while. I must not have been ready to hear what I was trying to say when I first started on the idea. With a leftover studio day coming up and all the tracking for Cozy Inside and Rosemary & Evergreen complete, I decided to go back to the “unfinished” folder and see what ideas I might be able to coax into the “finished” folder. Tennessee Snow came together on Sunday evening, tracking was started on Monday, and on Tuesday of that same week we were moving into mixing and production. I love the big, echoing, atmospheric instrumentation that gives Tennessee Snow the muted yet forward sound of listening to any sound on a snow covered day.
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Press

Rane’s vocals drip with dreamy, velvety timbres, imbuing the lyrics with low-slung, bewitching surfaces.” - Randy Radic

Guitar Girl Magazine

Rane with her musical versatility proves she has the chops to become a full-on original up-and-coming Americana winner along the lines of Sierra Ferrell.” - Glide Magazine

Glide Magazine

...vocals wrap around you like a favorite cardigan and all seems right in the world, reality be damned.” - Shawn Underwood

Twangville

A deeply poetic spirit whose prose is as rich and compelling as her lyrics - metaphoric, soul-resonating, and sweetly and poignantly heartbreaking...” - Jonathan Widran

The JW Vibe

Meet Me In Stockholm...is a shimmering slice of country-infused acoustic guitar and charming and chiming vocals.” - Dave Franklin

The Big Takeover

...a wonderful ability to capture and communicate complex and simple emotions and observations in a way that we can all relate to in one way or another.” - John Michael Antonio

Americana Highways

Biography

Teni Rane is a folk-country singer-songwriter with a vintage vocal edge and a knack for capturing common scenes of everyday life in a way that is at once specific and widely relatable. Comfortable in everything from overalls to full-body sequins, Rane isn’t afraid to explore musical territory and synthesizes vocal and sonic influences into her own brand of country-infused, Americana-folk-pop with a jazzy vocal lean that feels simultaneously familiar and brand new. 

2023 brings a new slate of releases for the East Tennessee singer-songwriter collectively known to her as “The Goldenrod Singles”. Working again with past collaborator Roger Gustafsson (bass, steel guitar) and adding renowned cellist Dave Eggar and talented guitarist Phil Faconti to the team (both with a long list of impressive credits to their names as well as the coveted status of GRAMMY nominee), “The Goldenrod Singles” came to life in Bristol, TN at Classic Recording Studio with GRAMMY nominated Mike Stephenson engineering and co-producing alongside Rane. These songs are tied together thematically and belong to an album set to release in 2024. The title track - “Goldenrod” - kicked off a series of releases spanning August through October 2023. 

Rane grew up in and around a community of Chattanooga musicians who helped nurture in her an early love for music. Her vocals carry power and finesse rolled together with perfect balance to evoke the emotional feel of her lyrics, and her Americana-take on a variety of select covers is delightfully unexpected. Through each stage of her writing life, her original songs have revealed an ability to weave common experiences into songs that captivate people in every age range. As a child she was often found belting out lyrics in the back seat of a minivan on the way to just about anywhere. Singing was the gateway to a creative life. That six CD changer exposed her to the writing of Nanci Griffith, Carol King, Beth Woods, John Prine, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and many other greats. The resulting flavor of her original work is an eclectic mix influenced by the earliest writing she encountered, as well as by contemporary pop music. Her listeners can also hear a wide range of influences in her vocal performance from the power of Lady Gaga and Stevie Nicks to the finesse of Norah Jones and vintage country edge of Patsy Cline.   

Her recording journey began in 2020 with the release of her first EP, “Heart in Tennessee”, which was heralded by Americana Highways as “the mesmerizing sound of an burgeoning and singular talent who is prodigiously steeped in the ability to express herself in a fresh and original manner.” In the summer of 2022 she took up a musical residency at Kneippbyn Resort Visby on the beautiful Swedish island Gotland in the Baltic Sea. During that time she connected with many talented musicians on the island and created the space to work with Sandkvie Studios to record 4 singles that were released over the course of fall 2022. The first of the quartet, titled “Meet Me in Stockholm” is a lightly bilingual invitation from a homesick Rane to her best friend to come help fill the lonely hours. The additional tracks focus on the winter and holiday season with inviting titles “Cozy Inside”, “Rosemary & Evergreen”, and “Tennessee Snow”. The collection of songs allowed for continued exploration and shared the “exquisite nature of her songs, their understated and honesty, their deftness and delicacy, their combination of musical elegance and lyrical eloquence.” (The Big Takeover). These songs all have planned homes on future projects and currently stand alone as singles in Rane’s digital catalog.  

Teni thrives in listening room and house concert settings where she feels the most connected to the audience through the conversation and story lines of her music. She also loves playing in parks, botanical gardens, and really any outdoor venue. When playing live, she is often accompanied by her partner and spouse, Jonathan Shumaker, on the bass.

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