Biography

Dennis Robert Svehla was born in Chicago, Illinois. He began singing in school choirs and eventually went to college for vocal training. He performed in many local productions including Carousel (Billy Bigelow), Oklahoma (Curly), The Music Man (Prof Harold Hill) and a Musical Version of Scrooge (Young Scrooge).

Denny was approached by Dick Clark productions to audition for season 2 of Your Big Break and eventually got the call to sing Neil Diamond's, "Coming To America". This was the beginning of a career change not expected but certainly appreciated. After the airing of his episode he was called on by Sean Kelly of Sixpence None The Richer to come to Nashville and perform at a private Halloween party thrown by the groups lead singer Leigh Nash. He became a phenomenon in Nashville overnight. A phenomenon because Nashville was home to original musicians and Denny was accepted as the first tribute artist paving the way for a different kind of entertainment in Nashville.

Denny began singing at the legendary Slow Bar on Nashville's east side. After a few years Sean decided a band made up of some of Nashville's finest musicians should be backing Denny up. So Sean formed the group The Longfellows. Denny and The Longfellows started selling out the Slow Bar on multiple occasions.

The group soon moved the show to a larger venue, The Mercy Lounge, where again they sold out again and again.

Denny recently created a one man show , "Words and Music by Neil Diamond", where he tells stories about the life and inspiration behind the songs of Neil Diamond. He also includes anecdotes about his 22+ years of performing Neil's beloved music.
- IMDb mini biography by: Robert Thomas