Tami Neilson shares swingin' "Are You Sure" from the Holy Days soundtrack

Tami Neilson's "Are You Sure" is a soundtrack highlight of "Holy Days" starring Miriam Margolyes & Judy Davis as nuns. 

Watch Tami Neilson duet with Willie Nelson on "Beyond The Stars"

Celebrating Tami Neilson's birthday with her performance of "Beyond The Stars" with Willie Nelson – the best country song in NZ!

Tami Neilson shares well-costumed "Kingmaker" clip from her new album

Tami Neilson went for the gold with the Alyx Duncan-directed clip for "Kingmaker," the title track off her new album out Friday. 

Get a copy of Tami Neilson's new Kingmaker LP via Bandcamp right here. 

Tami Neilson and Nive & The Deer Children play Harbourfront, July 15

Tami Neilson performs at 9:30 pm with Greenland's Nive & The Deer Children (8 pm) & Sweden's Sara Ajnnak (7 pm) for free!

Tami Neilson releasing expanded version of CHICKABOOM!

The deluxe edition of Tami Neilson's CHICKABOOM! includes 5 extra tracks recorded live with the 12-piece Big Boss Orchestra. 

Here's the scoop...

After a year of building momentum, including performances at Americanafest in Nashville in the fall of 2019, and a confirmed slot at Willie Nelson’s famed Luck Reunion, Auckland-based, Canadian-born musician Tami Neilson launched her new album CHICKABOOM! in February, 2020.

The collection received rave reviews from top-drawer publications such as MOJO, Rolling Stone and American Songwriter. No Depression ironically proclaimed, “Just call 2020 the Year of Tami!” In a matter of weeks, as COVID-19 took over the world and New Zealand and the rest of the world plunged into lockdown, Tami’s world tour was cancelled, and all that hard-earned momentum ground to a halt. Still hoping to make her NZ dates, she entered Neil Finn’s iconic Roundhead Studios to promote those shows and perform with her band (whom she hadn’t seen in four months) and the 12-piece Big Boss Orchestra for the very first time for Radio New Zealand’s LIVE Sessions national broadcast. These one-take, reimagined selections make up five new dramatic arrangements on CHICKABOOM! DELUXE. 

Not long after the world went sideways, the creative whirlwind got busy with her team, which includes her brothers Jay and Todd, musical and video collaborators, respectively. The Tami Show, a 12-episode series on YouTube, was born as a welcome respite from quarantine life. Offering a glimpse into Tami’s life with funny anecdotes, fashion inspiration, hair and make-up tutorials, and THAT VOICE, the show, along with additional videos from CHICKABOOM! can be viewed on her YouTube channel right here. 

The single “Hey Bus Driver” from CHICKABOOM! won Country Song of the Year at the New Zealand Country Music Awards and the track “You Were Mine” was nominated for the APRA Silver Scroll for Song of the Year. CHICKABOOM! was also nominated for Album of the Year at the Aotearoa Music Awards (previously named Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards). 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked Tami to perform at her campaign launch before her landslide re-election after Tami included an actress playing the PM in the music video for the track "Big Boss Mama”, released for International Women’s Day in 2019 (watch it right here)

As Tami states, PM Ardern “came up to me at the Music Awards after the video played on the big screen and said, ‘You know you could’ve just asked me to do it!’ I said, ‘You were on maternity leave, so I didn't want to bother you.’ She laughed and said, ‘Ok, well, next time!’ I'm gonna hold her to it.”

Pre-order a copy of CHICKABOOM! DELUXE (out February 19) from your fave service right here. Watch Tami's new videos for "Call Your Mama" and "Tell Me That You Love Me" followed by the track listing below.

 

CHICKABOOM DELUXE! Tracklist

01 Call Your Mama

02 Hey, Bus Driver!

03 Ten Tonne Truck

04 Queenie, Queenie

05 You Were Mine

06 16 Miles Of Chain

07 Tell Me That You Love Me

08 Any Fool With A Heart

09 Sister Mavis

10 Sleep

Live at Roundhead Studios bonus tracks

11 A Woman’s Pain

12 Call Your Mama

13 Roimata (Cry Myself To Slee)

14 Walk (Back To Your Arms)

15 You Were Mine

Watch Tami Neilson's new video for "Ten Tonne Truck"

"Ten Tonne Truck" is off Tami Neilson's forthcoming Chickaboom! album due February 14th. Tami plays the Mod Club Monday (November 18). 

Tami Neilson on tour Nov 16 - Wakefield, QC - Blacksheep Inn Nov 18 - Toronto, ON - Mod Club Theatre  Nov 21 - Sorel Tracy, QC - Azimut Diffusion Nov 22 - Quebec City, QC - Palais Montcalm Nov 23 - Repentigny, QC - Centre D’art Diane Dufresne Nov 28 - Knowlton, QC - Théâtre du Lac Brome Nov 29 - Longueuil, QC - Theatre de la Ville Nov 30 - Saint Therese, QC - Cabaret BMO

Watch Tami Neilson's new video for "Hey Bus Driver!"

"Hey Bus Driver!" is off Tami Neilson's forthcoming album CHICKABOOM! due Feb 14th on Outside. Tami plays the Mod Club on Nov 18th. 

Here's the scoop...
Tami grew up performing across North America with the Neilson Family Band, working alongside greats such as Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker, and Kitty Wells. With her parents Betty and Ron (her late father a songwriter of considerable accomplishment) and two brothers Todd (drums) and Jay (bass), she spent years on the road learning her craft. This enabled Tami to explore her increasing vocal and emotional range and build a deep well of musical influences to draw upon when she started to write her own material.

Subsequently, Tami fell in love with a New Zealander, moved to the bottom of the world and began her solo career without the support of the family. Over many years she built a platform for herself through open-mic nights, playing soulless casinos and the dead-air time-slots at festivals, finding a small group of fellow travellers and supportive players, and then a series of increasingly impressive albums followed.

The early records saw her in a self-created territory between mainstream country and alternative country, a couple recorded around the kitchen table back home in Canada with brother Jay, who is now an acclaimed producer and songwriter. Then awards started coming in New Zealand for albums that added breadth to her “country singer” label: Best Female Artist, Best Country Album, Best Country Song, an APRA Silver Scroll (songwriting) award and Album of the Year nominations. Her Dynamite! album of 2014 received rave reviews in Britain’s MOJO and the Guardian named it a Top 10 Best Country Music Album. Tami’s songs appeared on the Netflix series Wanted and the terrestrial TV series Nashville.

The road has now led to CHICKABOOM!, which is something different again, and even more personal. “In the past year, I started to notice something,” she says. “The artists I would spend time with backstage at festivals, the ones I gravitated to the most and followed on social media – artists like the Secret Sisters, Shovels & Rope, Kasey Chambers, Brandi Carlile – they all had family performing with them.”

“When you tour away from loved ones, it makes a world of difference to have part of your village with you on the road. Not to mention, nothing can come close to that special blend of blood harmonies and silent communication that only comes from being onstage with a person for over 30 years. Family has always been a huge part my music-writing, recording and creating with me, but I wanted family on this project and on the road with me again.”

Brother Jay flew to Auckland, New Zealand from Toronto to record a selection of new songs that have unmistakable sibling magic and harmonies. “I don’t think he quite understands what he’s gotten himself into but now the album’s coming out it’s a bit too late. Sucker,” she laughs.

Check the current list of Tami Neilson's upcoming Canadian tour dates following the clip for "Hey Bus Driver!" below.



TOUR DATES
Nov 16 - Wakefield, QC - Blacksheep Inn
Nov 18 - Toronto, ON - Mod Club Theatre
Nov 21 - Sorel Tracy, QC - Azimut Diffusion
Nov 22 - Quebec City, QC - Palais Montcalm
Nov 23 - Repentigny, QC - Centre D’art Diane Dufresne
Nov 28 - Knowlton, QC - Théâtre du Lac Brome
Nov 29 - Longueuil, QC - Theatre de la Ville
Nov 30 - Saint Therese, QC - Cabaret BMO

Watch Tami Neilson's video for "Manitoba Sunrise At Motel 6"

Tami Neilson's new album SASSAFRASS! will be released by Outside Music on emerald green vinyl on June 1. 

Tami Neilson launches live Bootleg Series with Songs Of Sinners LP

Tami's 9-track Songs of Sinners album – available here – focuses on covers, including Otis Rush's Reap What You Sow.

Watch Tami Neilson's new Loco Mama video

"Loco Mama" is off Tami Neilson's Don't Be Afraid album out now on Outside Music. 

Tami Neilson brings Dynamite! to the Burdock Thursday and the Dakota Tavern Friday

Now a star in her adopted home of New Zealand, Canuck Tami Neilson is primed to blow up in North America. 

LINKS
site: http://www.tamineilson.com/
label: http://outside-music.com/label/artist/tami-neilson/
ticket info: Burdock; Dakota Tavern: sold out

One For The Weekend: Tami Neilson

"Cry Over You" is off Tami Neilson's 2014 album Dynamite! She plays the Dakota Tavern February 5.