Tami Neilson Duets with Neill Finn on NEON COWGIRL Album
Tami Neilson, a Canadian native who calls New Zealand home, has teamed up with fellow Kiwi and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn for the fourth single from her upcoming album, NEON COWGIRL, her highly-anticipated follow up to Kingmaker.
Tami and Neil duet on the title track, an autobiographical song dedicated to a younger version of herself, a girl who spent her childhood on the road performing in her family’s gospel band, The Neilsons. The version of herself that left Canada and her brother and longtime collaborator, Jay Neilson, to make a new life and start a family of her own in New Zealand.
After decades in the musical trenches, her dreams were starting to come true. In 2023 she and Jay played the Ryman for the first time and 2024 found her wowing the audience at her Grand Ole Opry debut.
Tami shares the story behind the song, saying: “I wish I could time travel and play this song for past versions of myself. The teenager sleeping on the floor on a mattress after her family band had lost everything. She got a job at the makeup counter of a local pharmacy. Her small paycheque supported all five of them for a while. ‘Fall at Your Feet’ by Crowded House played multiple times a day through the pharmacy speakers. She sang the harmony quietly, feeling defeated and wondering if she’d ever be in music again.
“The 27-year-old who sat in the audience with her brother Jay in the darkness of Toronto’s Massey Hall, listening to Neil Finn and his brother Tim sing ‘Disembodied Voices,’ a song about siblings. She grabbed Jay’s hand while they both cried, knowing she was moving across the world to New Zealand in just a few weeks.
“Two decades later, I walked through the doors of the Ryman Auditorium to fulfill a lifelong dream of performing on that stage for the first time. Neil had invited me to open for Crowded House —the Kiwis invading Nashville! Jay was by my side, my husband and children in the wings, the Finns watched side stage, the audience were on their feet and the Neon Cowgirl shone down on us all.”
On July 11, NEON COWGIRL will be released on Outside Music. The album features guests JD McPherson, Neil Finn, Grace Bowers, and Ashley McBryde and Shelly Fairchild, who co-wrote Tami’s current Americana radio single, “Borrow My Boots.”
Following dates in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Tami and her band joined Willie Nelson, and then Willie and Bob Dylan, on select dates on the 2025 Outlaw Music Festival tour.
They also played Willie’s Fourth of July Picnic and were invited back for two appearances at the The Grand Ole Opry. The “fire-breathing R&B belter” (Rolling Stone) and “full-tilt badass” (Saving Country Music) is still chasing that dream, and with NEON COWGIRL, she may well have achieved it.
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