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I
t's not every day that New Zealand's
reigning queen of country pops
over to your house for tea and cake.
On this particular overcast Auckland
morning, Tami Neilson looks every
inch the off-duty rockabilly mama in a
vintage red woollen coat with a leopard-
print collar, leopard-print leggings,
red ballet flats and her hair slicked up
into a high bun. Seated on an orange
vinyl 1960s chair, with her seven-
week-old son Sam in her arms, Tami
complements the retro décor perfectly.
In fact she seems so bright-eyed and
bushy tailed it's hard to believe she gave
birth just a few weeks ago. As we sip tea
and nibble Melting Moments, she tells
Glory Days about the whirlwind year
that was.
2014 was the year that the Ontario-
born singer released her critically
acclaimed fourth studio album
Dynamite, travelled the country on her
sold-out album release tour, took to
the road with the Grand Ole Hayride,
performed at WOMAD – and gave
birth to her second son. She was named
Best Female Artist at the New Zealand
Country Music Awards, won Apra's
Best Country Music Song for Whiskey
and Kisses (penned with frequent
collaborator Delaney Davidson) and
her spine-tingling song Walk (Back to
your Arms), co-written with her brother
Jay, is currently up for a Silver Scroll.
But if you think she's due for a breather,
think again. By the time you read this,
The Tami Neilson band (made up of
Tami, Dave Khan and Ben Wooley) will
be back on the road as a guest on the
Topp Twins’ Grand Ole Topp'ry tour.
As a working mum, Tami says there is
no way she could cope with her schedule,
if it wasn't for her hubbie Grant and her
mother-in-law. “When I go on tour, he
and my mother-in-law have to juggle
their workloads. Grant usually stays with
the kids while I'm away.”
So how is it that, despite having two
kids under three, she never fails to look
a million dollars? It's all smoke and
mirrors, she laughs. “It's just makeup
and hair,” she says. “That's why I like
vintage! It covers everything up and
makes you look perky. If you've got
a great dress and a beehive then you
instantly look awake. If your hair is big,
people don't look at your face so much.
So the hair is a decoy, a total decoy!”
Tami's signature style pays homage
to her favourite decades, the 1950s and
60s – she loves tight wiggle dresses
with a hair flower and a beehive or
victory rolls. Vintage style never fails
to make her feel feminine and classy,
she says, no matter what her shape
or weight.
However, she hasn't always dressed
like a vintage glamazon. As a child,
Tami and her younger brothers would
wear matching outfits on stage when
they played in their family band The
Neilsons. “Back then I also had pretty
much the same hair as my mum which
was shocking really.”
As The Neilsons, Tami, her parents
Ron and Betty, and two younger
brothers Todd and Jay, spent a decade
touring North America and Canada
in a motorhome. She compares it to a
country version of The Partridge Family.
Along the way they shared a stage
with everyone from Loretta Lynn and
Brenda Lee to Johnny Cash, and made
regular TV appearances.
Not your run-of-the mill upbringing
then? "I guess it's more unusual in New
Zealand, but in North America, you'd
be surprised at the number of family
bands around.”
So what's a Canadian like Tami doing
in a place like New Zealand?
“I met [my husband] Grant when
I came to New Zealand to visit a
girlfriend who married a Kiwi. We
hit it off, fell in love and had a long-
The New
Queen
of countryBy Natasha Francois
cover story
Since moving to New Zealand eight years ago, Candian-born singer Tami
Neilson has risen to the top of the local country music scene and helped
introduce the genre to a new generation of fans. Hot on the heels of being
named Best Female Country Artist in the New Zealand Country Awards, Tami
tells Natasha Francois why Dynamite is her most vintage-sounding album yet,
how she met her “musical brothers” and why she’s proud to be a “maple-kiwi”.

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the past through finances and having the
right musicians. “In the past, my brother
Jay produced everything and family
members did everything for free. But if
you want to use professional musicians
who are not related to you in any way,
you have to pay for them!” she laughs.
T
he ingenious graphic design
also makes it look like an
artefact from the era. “That
was by Delaney Davidson (read more
about him on pp. 33-39) . He's rudely
talented. He used a pseudonym on
the back, it says Rough Diamond,
as he didn't want it to look Delaney,
Delaney, Delaney all over it.”
Davidson co-produced alongside
Ben Edwards. “He had never produced
before and, at first, he was toying with
the idea of doing it under a pseudonym.
But as soon as we started recording, I
think he was very proud of it.”
Delaney also co-wrote half the songs
on the album with Tami. Some were
literally written in one morning.
“Delaney and I sat down over a couple
of cups of tea and some Gingernuts and
basically wrote Dynamite, Honey Girl
and Running to You, and they're some of
my favourites.”
Talking with Tami, it's obvious she
has huge affection for the group of
male musicians she refers to as her
“boys” and her “musical brothers”. This
includes Delaney, Marlon Williams, and
bandmates Dave Khan, Ben Woolley
and Joe McCallum.
Although Tami had heard of Marlon
and Delaney through the local
music scene, it wasn't till the 2011
Christchurch earthquakes that they
crossed paths. Tami was in town on
tour, but after the Lytellton venue they
were supposed to be performing at was
pronounced a no-go zone, she ended up
performing at a pop-up gig in the park
alongside Marlon Williams' then band,
The Unfaithful Ways, Delaney and
The Eastern. “This group of Lyttelton
musicians were doing gigs just with
distance relationship for four years,
each taking turns travelling every six
months to visit the other. Eventually he
asked me to come over to see if I could
make my life here and I fell in love
with New Zealand.”
What did she think of the country
music scene when she arrived? "It was
quite a culture shock," she says. "It
was almost like country music here
had skipped a generation. When I first
started [performing in New Zealand],
the audience was like a sea of white
hair – and while they are a fantastic
audience and very loyal – my generation
wasn't present at all. I was the youngest
in the room which really surprised me
because at home, country is the most
successful genre and every generation is
represented at country gigs."
However, in the last few years, the
tide has turned and there's now a
groundswell of country music in New
Zealand. That is largely down to the
efforts of alt country ambassadors
including Delaney Davidson, Marlon
Williams (now Melbourne-based, see
p. 31) The Eastern, and Bernie Griffin,
who have helped boost the profile
of country through events such as
The Grand Ole Hayride Tour and The
Gunslingers Ball (read more on pp??),
she says. "There are a lot more people
our age and our generation making this
music and performing original songs.
“Country music is everything from
Delaney Davidson to Taylor Swift;
they might be at different ends of the
spectrum but they're all under the
same umbrella."
Her own tastes run the gamut from
Willie Nelson and Kris Kristoffersen to
The Highway Men to the gospel-infused
Sister Rosetta. “I also love Dolly Parton,
she's one of my idols. She is someone
who has always reinvented herself and
transcended eras and genres.
“But for me personally, the music that
I celebrate, love to perform and write is
from the golden age of country music,
from Patsy Cline to Hank Williams.”
And it's not surprising, as Neilson's
voice is often being described as “the
lovechild of Patsy Cline and Roy
Orbison.”
"What people don't realise,” she
says, “is at the time that Patsy Cline
was climbing the country charts she
was simultaneously climbing the
mainstream pop charts too. That's the
thing that gets me when people try to
pigeonhole country music and say that
they like it or they don't. Good music
doesn't have boundaries. Audiences are
intelligent, they're not being spoon-fed.
It's the age of the independent artist so I
think audiences are more independent-
thinking as well, in choosing what they
want to listen to.”
I
f you've haven't yet picked up a
copy of Dynamite, you're seriously
missing out. Dubbed the “best
country/Americana album you'll
hear out of little ol' New Zealand”
(by Wellington music critic Simon
Sweetman), it's collected rave reviews
since day one.
Dynamite, recorded over four days at
Lyttelton's Sitting Room, sounds as if it
could have been beamed straight from
the late 1950s or early ‘60s. The 10-track
collection covers impressive terrain
including tear-stained ballads, torch
songs, ‘50s rock 'n' roll numbers to the
very Nancy Sinatra-Lee Hazelwood-
sounding Running to You and the Patsy
Cline-esque Cry Over You. It kicks off
with the soul-drenched, Big Mama
Thornton-influenced Walk (Back
to Your Arms) and finishes up with
traditional country ballad Whiskey and
Kisses. They're all originals and each one
is an instant classic.
Tami calls it her most vintage-
sounding album to date and her first
real Kiwi album. “I love the mix of
country, soul, gospel and blues,” she
says. “I've always wanted to be an artist
that sounds like they could have been
on the Sun Records roster. They blurred
all the lines and everything they put out
was a mix of genres.”
The authentic vintage sound on
Dynamite is a result of the band playing
live off the floor, she says. “If anyone
screwed up, we had to start again. All
the mics were bleeding; that's how they
used to do it.”
It's also the album she's always wanted
to make but has been restricted from in
“I’ve always wanted to be an artist that
sounds like they could have been on the
Sun Records roster”

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Fahsion spread
their guitars, no power... and people
would start wandering in from their
homes and bringing their families to
sit on the grass. We ended up with a
big crowd of people just listening to the
music and feeling uplifted. That was
how I met Delaney along with many
Lyttelton musicians.”
B
ut it was a couple of years
before they collaborated. “I saw
Marlon and Delaney perform
at the Wine Cellar and I remember
sitting there – and I'd just had [my first
son] Charlie and it was my first night
out – and as I listened, my knees were
shaking. That doesn't happen a lot, it
takes a lot to excite me after years in the
music business – I was like, 'I need to
work with these guys.’”
She considers Delaney a kindred spirit
creatively because he has the rare ability
to hear the music inside her head. “It's
funny, people say to me that they rarely
see Delaney smile and be this cheerful
person but because my personality is
very bubbly and I'm a bit disgustingly
cheerful, it kind of rubs off of him when
we're around each other. I think that's
kind of why we work together so well.
“He could see things in my
performance that I've always hoped
other people picked up on and never
did. Things like we'd finish a gig and
he'd go ‘Oh that song! Man it's like
Sister Rosetta’ and I'd go ‘Oh man, not
only do you know who Sister Rosetta is
but you can hear her influence coming
through me.’ We'd talk about Mavis
Staples and soul and how you actually
blend that with country without losing
the fan base you've already established.
“I guess our music isn't just geared
to country music audiences and I
think that working with these guys
[Marlon, Delaney, The Eastern] has
definitely expanded my audiences.
Even doing things such as Glory Days
and the Very Vintage Day Out, I've
discovered a whole new world of
kindred spirits who have the same
passion for retro and vintage and the
kind of music I love performing, so
discovering that whole world has been
awesome as well.”
After living in New Zealand for
more than eight years, Tami says she's
fallen head over heels for her adopted
country and she's been humbled to
see how much she's been embraced by
Kiwis. Despite constantly being told
she was committing career suicide
because she was leaving a successful
career in north America and starting
all over in New Zealand, Tami's
taken every supposed negative and
turned it into a positive. “I thought
to myself, well if the industry here
is so small, it just means I'll be able
to get somewhere faster. That's what
I love about New Zealand –people
are so accessible and there's a certain
innocence which is endearing.
“I've been blown away by how many
amazing opportunities I've had, I am so
grateful. It definitely feels like I'm meant
to be in New Zealand, it's home now."
For more information, visit
www.tamineilson.com
FASHION
Goin’ Up The
Country