Tami Neilson has been immersed in music for her entire life. During her youth she was a member of a popular family country band, before embarking on a solo career in her early 20s. That career journey took a significant course deviation when she moved to New Zealand to marry her now husband in 2007. Over the past decade, Neilson has become a beloved and critically lauded member of the Kiwi music community, charting several hit singles and albums, and picking up a fair share of industry awards in the stunningly beautiful island nation.
She has also toured extensively in her home and native land of Canada, as well as garnering success on the U.S. Americana circuit. Her songs have also appeared in TV shows such as the international hit Nashville as well as prominently on the New Zealand series Brokenwood Mysteries 2.
In short, Neilson is a national treasure in two countries, and is set to return to Canada to tour in support of her new album, Sassafrass! Which is coming out June 1 on Toronto-based Outside Music.
Without sounding crass, Neilson has created more than just music that is so catchy and innovative and timelessly charming and fun, but she has in fact created a ‘brand’. The colour schemes in the videos and album covers, the fashions that she sports, the mannerisms and movements on stage, the vocal delivery all seamlessly mesh with the music and her personality. These are not affectations but magnifications of qualities and styles that come naturally to her. It makes for an incredibly compelling and eminently likable artist.
Neilson said a watershed moment happened in her career a couple of years ago when she toured as an integral part of a show called Songs of Sinners throughout New Zealand, which was a musical exploration of how Gospel music morphed into rock and roll. Previously categorized as a country artist, the tour brought Neilson’s gutsy, bluesy side to the fore.
“I had done a lot of international touring and then I did this show where I was singing all these massive songs by people like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Howlin’ Wolf, Ray Charles and more. I performed those songs over an 18-month period and I realized I didn’t want to go back to singing the type of songs I wrote before. You perform those amazing songs with such conviction and power and I just felt I wanted to write and sing like that all the time. And it totally developed me. I feel that this new album is me coming into my concept of who I am really as a performer, as a writer, as an artist and, I think, as a woman,” she explained.
“That and the combination of becoming a mother [to sons Charlie, 6, and four-year-old Sam), losing a parent [her father] and turning 40 all around the same time. Those are three major milestones that really shape your identity and change your perspective on life. And you prioritize differently what’s important and what isn’t. I think that my style has evolved and developed over the last couple of years in terms of how I perform and the way I dress and conduct myself and the way I write.
“In terms of my musical style, I feel like I always use the same palate. I feel like all the colours are there but for some albums the paints might be a little darker, or the colours a little bolder. I feel like rockabilly, soul, country, Gospel, blues – all those colours, they’re all the same family. They all come from the same place; they were all born in the same place in the Deep South, so they’re all related. And that’s the music I have always done. I think that’s where some people start to get disappointed or confused when they realize I am not that one thing. I am all of those colours and as a listener who goes to a gig of an artist that I love, even if I adore them, if three songs in I have heard everything they do, I can get bored. I need to be excited about what I am singing and singing it with conviction or that’s not going to translate to my audience. I want music to be varied and exciting and unexpected. From an artist perspective and a creative perspective and from an audience member perspective, I would much prefer to have different flavours to sample. That excites me a lot more.”
Empowerment, self-confidence, being unafraid to be who one is or wants to be is a consistent theme in Neilson’s music, particularly on Sassafrass! It’s more than just a nod to the profound and positive societal changes that seem to have been sparked by the #MeToo movement, but is the essence of Neilson’s personality, and artistry. Tough topics are handled head on, but in a way that is deft, adroitly clever and even fun – but the thought provoking messages are always crystal clear.
“I honestly don’t know if it’s always been that strong of a thread. I think as I have grown and matured as a woman, as I have said before, you become bolder, you become more confident and you really do change your way of thinking. When I was in my 20s, I was very much concerned about what other people thought. But I also feel that you learn life lessons as you grow. Becoming a parent, losing a parent, turning 40 – all those things coincided, and I definitely think that the social and political climate that we’re in now has also pushed a button in a lot of people. It’s such a volatile world that you can’t be fearful. You can’t be afraid of confrontation when you’re standing up for what’s right,” Neilson said.
“I guess it’s about trying to keep your identity and being fearless and bold about what you believe in and what you feel is right. But also, still keeping that joy and sharing it in a way that’s a celebration and a bit tongue in cheek. I feel that this album is kind of wrapped in a candy-coloured, bright-bowed package but at the heart of it, the message and lyrics are quite subversive.”
Such is the case with the rip-roaring, powerhouse vocal performance on Sassafrass’s first single, Stay Outta My Business. Although as the title relates, the message behind this song is neither subtle or subversive but actually pretty darn direct.
“As a woman I have encountered, and all of us in the music industry have encountered misogyny and sexism and things like that. But you kind of grow a thick skin and let it roll off you when it comes to comments on your appearance, on being too old, or being told that you’re a ‘light touch’ as one Nashville songwriter called me. I have encountered it, but it never really fazed me. It wasn’t until I became a mother that I really encountered misogyny and sexism full force and it was from the most unlikely of places. It was from other women. It was just the judgement and people saying who is looking after your children and how can you go on the road and leave them. It really affected me. As a performer, you’re already missing your children so terribly and feeling this crippling guilt for being away and then to have that said to you every day, it wore me down for a good 18 months,” Neilson explained.
“So, I had to do a lot of work on myself because this was a new experience for me. I never had to tour extensively since having children and I never had to confront this issue, so I worked on myself a lot over the past year. That song is one of the outcomes of that work. It’s about getting to point of confidently feeling and knowing that I am doing the absolute best thing for my family and taking care of my children. I am providing. I am connecting with them and they are loved and happy. I will never have to say to my two boys ‘follow your dreams, and work hard,’ because they see me do it every day. And I never have to say to them to treat a woman equally when they are in a relationship because they have a father who is equally sharing the responsibilities of parenting.
“That song is from coming to a place of confidence as a parent, as a mom, to be able to actually turn to these people and tell them to stay out of my business. I came to the realization that these people don’t know me, they don’t know my children, they don’t know my husband, so they certainly don’t love and care about us. And those things are not being said to me out of love and care, so there shouldn’t be any value to those comments. What’s important is what people who love me and care about me and know me and know my family think. That has value.”
Miss Jones was written and sung in homage to one of Neilson’s musical heroes, American soul singer/activist Sharon Jones who died in the fall of 2016.
“I love Sharon Jones. I have always been aware of her music and one of my biggest regrets was not being able to hear her perform live. She was playing in Auckland and I had a gig that same night, as often happens. I had listened to her music and always enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until I saw the documentary about her called Miss Sharon Jones! [released in 2015] that I really felt deeply connected to her. It was right after my dad passed away and in one part of the movie she was on the cover of a magazine and she started crying and said, ‘if only my mom could have seen this,’ and that got me crying,” she said.
“She started talking about how she said she was always told she was too fat, too old and too black. And I watched her absolute resilience and the fact that she didn’t make it as a performer until she was 50 with the Dap Kings. I felt such a strong connection with her and I just absolutely adore her and her music. I was deeply saddened and cried when she passed away. I guess this song is a celebration of her and how I referred to her in the song as a hurricane on legs. I am so inspired by her as a performer, even more so since watching the documentary. It wasn’t until I actually watched her perform that I was absolutely blown away with her energy and her power, her strut and her sass and her swagger. I really took that on board. So, the song is a little snapshot of the power of an amazing female. It’s like a Valentine to her.”
The innate strength of women is also infusing the message of the song A Woman’s Pain. A tour de force both musically and lyrically with a depth of conviction and soulfulness that will leave the listener transfixed and emotionally stirred.
“I wanted to write about the experiences of the women in my life and the legacy of the women that I come from. It’s about a woman’s pain, but it’s also about resilience and celebrating the resilience of women. And a lot of what you hear is true. My grandmother lost her mom in childbirth and grew up on a reservation near Parry Sound. And that story comes up against the beginning of time and the earliest written record of the Adam and Eve story. Whether people believe it to be the truth or a parable or whatever, it was men writing the story. And it clearly shows the value of women, their place in society and how things have not changed a lot since the beginning of time,” Neilson said.
“It really struck me when I wrote that verse and digging out the Book of Genesis and going through that section the difference in the curses that were bestowed when they partook of the forbidden fruit. The first thing that the man did, of course, was to blame the woman. So, the man’s curse was that he would toil and work hard for the rest of his days. Whereas the woman’s curse was that she will have great pain in childbirth. And the second half of the curse was that she will be ruled by men, and she will fight against it her whole life. And it just hit me that, wow, this has been a fight since the beginning of time.”
Neilson believes the relative isolation of building her career and honing her craft as a songwriter and performer in New Zealand has been of great benefit, remarking that she may not have had the freedom to be herself if she had stayed in North America.
“It’s funny because all the things that people said would be drawbacks, like that I was moving to the bottom of the world and killing my career, I found all those things that were stated as a negative ended up being flipped into a positive for me. Being isolated from the main music centres meant that I was creating music that was different than what everybody else was creating. It makes me unique and because I was in a smaller country, I thought it would be easier to make my mark more quickly,” she said.
“Even things like winning music awards and stuff like that is a wonderful thing and is really great because it makes you feel really embraced by the people, especially being an ex-pat coming to a new country. It’s pretty special being embraced by your new country. And there are things like within a couple of years on the scene here I was opening arenas for Emmylou Harris and Mavis Staples. If I stage in Canada that just wouldn’t happen.”
Well, it happened and there is little doubt that Neilson’s fans in the Great White North are as chuffed by her success as are her legions of ardent admirers are in New Zealand. Canadian fans will have a chance to witness the Tami Neilson experience live during a handful of dates in Ontario this July. She is performing at the internationally renown Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia, which runs from July 6 to 8, as well as at Peter’s Place in Gravenhurst on July 11, followed by a show the next evening at the Neat Café in Burnstown. Then Neilson does two nights at the Signal Brewery in Belleville July 13 and 14.
For more information, visit http://www.tamineilson.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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