Tami Neilson

THECHECK-IN TAM I N E I L S O N

The country music Queen talks to Sarah Illingworth about dueting with Willie Nelson and her plans to overthrow the Kings

HOW DO you recover from meeting your hero? Country Americana powerhouse Tami Neilson is wrestling with just that.

The Canadian New Zealander recently returned from a trip to Texas, where she performed at Luck Reunion, a festival held on Willie Nelson’s ranch on March 17. Not only that, but the country music legend performed one of Neilson’s songs alongside her, in the first international show she’d played since the pandemic began.

“I got through the first verse and the chorus, but when he started singing his verse I was just overwhelmed,” she recalls. “I started crying and trying to keep it together. Like, be professional!”

Neilson asked Nelson to duet on her forthcoming album, Kingmaker after developing a friendship with his wife, Annie, over Twitter, when the pandemic meant the 2020 Luck Reunion — which she was originally supposed to perform at — was cancelled.

The track, Beyond The Stars, is a heart-hitter of a tribute to both Neilson’s and co-writer Delaney Davidson’s late fathers. It also struck home for Nelson after the passing of his sister Bobbie, who had played piano in his band for 50-odd years, just days before he and Neilson performed it live together.

Back in Aotearoa, Neilson’s looking ahead to the release of her eighth album, Kingmaker, due out on July 15. As well as personal and familial narratives, the record explores and challenges notions of patriarchy — through interrogating the role of “kingmakers”, or gatekeepers within a rigged music — more specifically country music — industry; those who hold the power to make or break an artist.

“The system is poisoned — it’s not going to change quickly, or overnight,” acknowledges the performer, “but that doesn’t mean that you can’t build your own, and exist outside of that structure.

Instead of begging for a seat at the table, you build your own table.” While Covid didn’t throw the record’s timeline off per se, the lack of performance and touring opportunities over the last couple of years certainly freed up Neilson’s mental and emotional energy, to be poured into writing and recording the album “she’s always wanted to make”.

“If Quentin Tarantino made a spaghetti Western and it starred Nancy Sinatra, that’s what I wanted the album to sound like. There are also songs that are very percussive and stripped back, and very much about the narrative in driving this story along.”

Also in the works is a project with Maegen and Nicola Mitchell, the twin sisters of alt-country artist Jenny Mitchell. The NZ On Airfunded development partnership is an example of Neilson’s commitment to supporting and platforming other artists and their work, by paying forward the opportunities she’s had access to in her career.

“One of the first acts that took me on tour in New Zealand, and gave me a chance, was the Topp Twins. I met those girls at a Country Music Awards, and they were accepting an award. Jools said, ‘When you have any success in this industry — if a door opens for you, push it wide open and hold it so that other people can come through and follow after you.’ And that’s something I’ve definitely taken to heart.”

Local country singer Tami Neilson; right, performing with country legend Willie Nelson. Photo (main) / Sophia Bayly

‘‘The system is poisoned — it’s not going to change quickly, or overnight.

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