Tami Neilson
With a soulful voice straight from the golden age of country and rockabilly music, Canadian-born songstress Tami Neilson grew up performing with her parents and her two brothers around North America as The Neilson Family Band. She then settled in New Zealand and lit out on her own as a country crooner adorned in vintage sound and style. She rapidly picked up numerous New Zealand Music Awards over several years for Best Female Artist, Best Country Album and Best Country Song, thanks to her pithy, bang-on verses and a voice that sounds like she swallowed Patsy Cline in one bite without chewing.
That would have been a comfortable musical space in which to nestle amongst her laurels, but with the blink of a false eyelash and a toss of her beehive, Neilson strutted on, augmenting her sweetheart-of-country sound with gospel, R&B, soul and rockabilly. This hip-swinging combo has become a raucous shout-out against double standards, Rolling Stone calling her “a fire-breathing belter on her own terms.”
Her trademark cheeky joy rides aloft on vigorous grooves, her trademark high-octane performances knocking out audiences around the world with what Downbeat Magazine calls “A great, big canyon of a voice.”
