Latest news with #NeonCowgirl
NZ Herald
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Tami Neilson's Neon Cowgirl reviewed – her time to shine
Tami Neilson: In the driver's seat. Photo / Alexia King Stone. Graham Reid is an NZ journalist, author, broadcaster and arts educator. His website, Elsewhere, provides features and reports on music, film, travel and other cultural issues. Local hero makes a bid for international recognition. It appears 'world famous in New Zealand' Tami Neilson's time has come in that long-sought American market. She's touring with Willie Nelson following her duet with him on the poignant Beyond the Stars and her Neilson Sings Nelson tribute album. Neon Cowgirl – all Neilson originals or co-writes – punches home right from the orchestrated opener Foolish Heart with the cloud-piercing drama of Roy Orbison, an influence also discernible in One Less Heart. Salvation Mountain is the high-energy, boot-kickin' country-rock offspring of Chuck Berry's Too Much Monkey Business and Neilson's own breathless Big Boss Mama. Borrow My Boots is a rollicking banjo-fuelled country-rocker of female empowerment; Loneliness of Love is a piano ballad and You're Gonna Fall arrives out of the desert on twanging guitar as singer JD McPherson becomes the Lee Hazlewood to her Nancy Sinatra. Love Someone is stirring amped-up swamp-funk, Keep On is Southern Gothic storytelling with a soaring, soulful finale. The moving title track featuring co-writer Neil Finn plays to Neilson's reclaiming of women's contribution in country music and aspirations for herself and other women in the genre. It also refers to Nashville's neon cowboy near Ernest Tubb's record shop, her desire to also be up there in lights, and the cowboy that was above Kean's jean shop on Auckland's Queen Street. The latter appeared on the cover of the 1987 Neon Cowboy album by Al Hunter who – along with the Warratahs – made country popular before the 1990s stadium rock of Garth Brooks and 'hat acts', and Americana singer-songwriters before Taylor Swift. So Neon Cowgirl arrives as part of a personal and cultural continuum, and as Tami Neilson's impressive calling card to that American audience she deserves. This album is available digitally, on CD and on vinyl. Tour dates: Opera House, Wellington, October 3; Aotea Centre, Auckland, October 4; Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, October 11; Theatre Royal, Nelson, October 12; Arts Festival, Tauranga, October 24.
Scoop
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Legendary Artist Willie Nelson Congratulates Tami Neilson In Beautiful Tribute Video
In a special addition to Gore's annual Country Music Honours on Friday 23 May, audiences witnessed the emotive debut of the Country Music Honour for Contribution to Country Music in Aotearoa. The inaugural recipient of this award was the acclaimed Tami Neilson, who was recognised for her outstanding impact and unwavering dedication to the country music scene - in front of a sold out theatre in NZ's country music capital. The Honour took Neilson by complete surprise as she stood on stage to watch a beautiful tribute video featuring Jesse Mulligan (RNZ), the Topp Twins, her Canada-based brother Todd Neilson, and the one and only Willie Nelson. Overcome with emotion during her acceptance speech, Neilson bid farewell to her fake lashes mid-sentence as she thanked the country music community for decades of support. The video opened with artists and industry members describing Tami's voice in a few words, such as 'rich and captivating' (Teresa Patterson, Head of Music, NZ On Air) and 'lungs of gold,' (award-winning songwriter Ebony Lamb). The Topp Twins, Dame Jools and Lynda Topp, reminisced on their instant love of Tami's music and the pride they feel in watching her climb the ranks and keep the door kicked open for the emerging artists behind her. In the tear filled theatre, Tami watched the video conclude with the whakatauki 'ka mua ka kite a muri,' from fellow country artist Nicola Mitchell, just before Tami's songwriting hero Willie Nelson appeared on screen to offer the English translation; Those who lead, give light to those who follow. The Honour followed a huge week for Neilson, with the announcement of her nationwide Neon Cowgirl tour and her new single 'Borrow My Boots' being added to rotation on NZME's new country music radio station; iHeartCountry New Zealand. Despite being one of the most significant figures to ever emerge from country music stages in Aotearoa New Zealand, this is the first time Tami's music has been playlist on commercial terrestrial radio in New Zealand. A moment that marks the beginning of a new era for an artist who has fiercely carved her own path in the music industry for over thirty years. The Country Music Honours are delivered by the NZ Songwriter's Trust, which is led by Gore local Vanessa Harvey. The Honour for Contribution to Country Music fills an important gap in the local music industry, acknowledging those both on and off the stage who have contributed to the growth of the country music genre. Vanessa shares, 'This recognition for Tami is well overdue and we feel so privileged to have had her in Gore for the Country Music Honours this year. New Zealand audiences and artists have been inspired and uplifted by her for decades and there is nobody more fitting for our first Country Music Honour for Contribution to Country Music.' The Honours are rapidly becoming a calendar staple for many music lovers and are one of over 70 events in Gore's 10 day Bayleys Tussock Country Music Festival - held in Gore in late May each year. The Country Music Honour for APRA Best Country Song was awarded to Holly Arrowsmith for 'Blue Dreams' and the Country Music Honour for the MLT Songwriting Award to Nicola Mitchell, Byllie-Jean Zeta, and Em-Hayley Walker (Theia, Te Kaahu) for their waiata 'Wā/Time'
RNZ News
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
NZ Country Icon Tami Neilson heads on tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. Tami Neilson (right) & Maggie Tweedie (left) Photo: RNZ Tami Neilson is a true tour de force, a rhinestoned rebel with a voice full of soul. Raised on the road, she spent her childhood crisscrossing North America in an RV with her family's country band, singing on stages before she could even spell her name. Music isn't just her calling, it's the rhythm her life has always moved to. Now based in New Zealand, Tami's star is rising fast, both at home and on the world stage. In 2024, a dream decades in the making came true: she stepped into the sacred circle at the Grand Ole Opry, singing her heart out on country music's most hallowed stage. That milestone lit a fire. After a chance friendship with Annie Nelson, wife of the legendary Willie Nelson, Tami found herself recording an entire album of Willie's songs in his Texas studio—an intimate, soulful homage titled Neilson Sings Nelson. The adventure doesn't stop there. She's about to hit the road for a major European and U.S. tour, including dates supporting none other than Bob Dylan, a pairing of legends, old and new. And right on the heels of that, she'll release Neon Cowgirl , her boldest album yet. Once the record drops, Tami will return to Aotearoa to bring Neon Cowgirl home, performing it in grand style in opera houses across the motu, including dates in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson and Tauranga. It's not just a tour—it's a victory lap. Amongst all of this, Neilson was awarded the very first Country Music Honour for Contribution to Country Music in Aotearoa at The Country Music Honours in Gore. It marks what has already been a remarkable year. Tami Neilson chatted to Maggie Tweedie about the new album, her upcoming tours and her recent AMA nominations for Best Country Song and Best Country Artist. The Neon Cowgirl New Zealand Tour Dates: Oct 3 - The Opera House, Wellington Oct 4 - Aotea Centre, Auckland Oct 11 - Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Oct 12 - The Theatre Royal, Nelson Oct 24 - The Arts Festival, Tauranga
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Julien Baker and Torres: Send a Prayer My Way review
The origins of Send a Prayer My Way stretch back nearly a decade. The partnership between US singer-songwriters Mackenzie 'Torres' Scott and Julien Baker germinated in 2016, when the pair performed together in Chicago. Scott subsequently suggested, in a text sent during the pandemic, that they make a country album. Accusations that the pair are jumping on an ongoing trend for high-profile pivots towards a Nashville-oriented sound – which has so far involved the likes of Beyoncé, Post Malone, Zayn Malik, Chappell Roan and Lana Del Rey – are thus diffused. Nevertheless, it still feels telling that Send a Prayer My Way arrives now. Baker has spent much of the 2020s as one-third of Boygenius, a collaboration with Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers that made her far more famous than her previous solo albums. It spiralled into something that resembled a genuine pop phenomenon, laden with awards and headlining Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl. Send a Prayer My Way, however, feels like a deliberate shift towards something more intimate and, perhaps, manageable. This is resolutely not the kind of 21st-century country that arrives, metaphorically, sporting a pink sequined cowboy hat, built to wind up on Spotify's Neon Cowgirl playlist alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Shania Twain. Instead, its closest peer may be 2016's self-titled collaborative album by Neko Case, kd lang and Laura Veirs. Its tasteful arrangements – big on softly weeping pedal steel and fiddle, occasional muted organ – and mid-to-slow tempos cleave to the less poppy and voguish sound of alt-country: when Tape Runs Out reaches a rocky crescendo, it feels closer to the realm of rootsy Americana than Nashville's Music Row. The distinct lack of rhinestones makes sense: like Dacus's recent Forever Is a Feeling – an album largely concerned itself with tracing the arc of Dacus and Baker's romantic relationship – it's explicitly rooted in the personal. Baker and Scott hail from America's deep south – the former from Tennessee, the latter from Georgia – where, as Baker put it, you 'couldn't escape' country music. Both are also gay, and the country scene of their youth was not exactly welcoming or inclusive. Send a Prayer My Way's same-sex love songs and stark explorations of growing up in an environment freighted with religious bigotry feel less groundbreaking in the era of fellow queer country acts Orville Peck and Brandi Carlile than they once might have done. But they're still marked by an affecting sense of personal reclamation, of two expat Southerners looking back at a genre they rejected in their youth and finding a place for themselves. 'In my book there's no such thing as a guilty pleasure / As long as your pleasure's not unkind,' the pair sing in harmony on The Only Marble I've Got Left. The pair sharply reframe standard country songwriting tropes such as weeping into your beer and/or starting a bar fight on Bottom of the Bottle, and Sylvia's inveterate wanderer bidding farewell before taking to the open road. It can sound samey: the sweetly upbeat single Sugar in the Tank is an outlier, and Send a Prayer My Way could perhaps have done with at least one more track like it. That said, there's real power in its combination of low-key musical delights – most notably the sound of Baker and Scott's voices together, the former high and plaintive, the latter deeper and darker in tone – and lyrics that can deliver an emotional sucker punch. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Tuesday details a young romance derailed by a combination of parental homophobia and internalised shame: 'Instead of backing me up / Tuesday melted right down / Asked me to write her mother / To emphasise how much I loved Jesus and men / How I wish that I hadn't,' Torres sings. The saga devolves into self-harm, religious doubt and regret: the song's brilliance lies not just in its unflinching retelling, but the fact it choses to spike its conclusion with wit. 'One more thing: if you ever hear this song / Tell your momma she can go suck an egg,' Torres sings, softly. Something of that line's quiet defiance runs right through Send a Prayer My Way, an album that seems intent on doing things its own way, regardless of commercial expectation or trends of the genre. It's beautifully made and gently powerful – a reminder that understated pleasures are pleasures all the same. Kokoroko – Sweetie From Kokoroko's forthcoming second album, Sweetie splits the difference between jazz, Afrobeat and soul in an entirely delightful way: very summery, very London.
