Tami Neilson Unveils New Album 'Neon Cowgirl' + Video ft. Neil Finn

Award-winning icon of Aotearoa's songwriting community and now conquering the world's stages, Tami Neilson's new album Neon Cowgirl is a rhinestone bedazzled homage to the ever-watchful "patron saint of heartbreak" in Nashville, Tennessee. In exquisite voice throughout her tenth studio record, Neilson is joined on the majestic title track by NZ rock royal Neil Finn, together radiating a country / western touch of TRON-like energy in the accompanying video directed by Abe Mora, made with support from NZ On Air.

Laid down live at Tāmaki Makaurau's Roundhead Studios and produced by Steven Schram, special guests include JD McPherson (whose rich vocal croon on the dramatic 'You're Gonna Fail' made me double check it wasn't Delaney Davidson), Ashley McBryde, Grace Bowers, and The Secret Sisters. Soon back home down under for a release tour of Aotearoa, following recent high profile dates with Willie Nelson (co-singer of her APRA Best Country Music Song Award winning 'Beyond The Stars') and Bob Dylan, Neilson explained Neon Cowgirl was written in a bus while travelling the US with her family for five months in a forty-foot motor home — following a time of serious health issues, as chatted about on the Basic Folk podcast...

"This album came rumbling to life on six wheels over the highways of North America. I wanted our children, born and raised in NZ, to get a taste of their Neilson family heritage - a five month pilgrimage from coast to coast and back again in a 36 foot RV. It was also my once-in-a-lifetime chance to really give it my all with my career, which I’d built slowly and steadily in small 2-3 week increments over a decade, running back and forth from the other side of the world. Then, only two months before our trip, I landed in the hospital for a month, battling for my life in ICU with sepsis. Our trip changed from one of me going full throttle to make a good dent in my career to one of recovery and slow healing. It became a time of embracing life fully and savoring the precious time with my family in a way one does only after a near-death experience. We zig-zagged across the country, from the ghostly halls of Graceland to the technicolor desert of Salvation Mountain, across neon graveyards in Las Vegas to driving alongside herds of buffalo in Montana.

I collected the seeds for these songs in each place along the way. When they blossomed, there were crossbreeds of Presley and Patsy, Orbison and kd lang - the blues of Memphis, the twang of Texas, the cinematic torch of Judy Garland on a Hollywood soundstage. But, mostly, it became a love letter to my Neon Cowgirl. Or, more accurately, a lovelorn letter. Because she’ll just keep on breaking a foolish heart if you let her."

Tami Neilson – Neon Cowgirl Tour NZ Dates

Friday 3rd October - Opera House, Wellington
Saturday 4th October - Aotea Centre, Auckland
Saturday 11th October - Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
Sunday 12 October - Theatre Royal, Nelson
Friday 24th October - Arts Festival, Tauranga*

Tickets on sale from plus1.co.nz
*Complete tour information is available at plus1.co.nz and tamineilson.com

'Neon Cowgirl' is out today on major streaming platforms via Outside Music — the vinyl LP and compact disc editions are available for order HERE.