Bio

With a soulful voice straight from the golden age of country and rockabilly music, Tami Neilson has been described as "A red-hot honky-tonker, somewhere between Patsy Cline and Wanda Jackson with perhaps just a little bit of Peggy Lee sophistication.” - Nick Bollinger, NZ National Radio

Winner of the New Zealand Music Awards Best Country Album 2009, 2010 and 2012

Tami Neilson was raised in Canada, by parents with a closet full of sequined stage costumes and platform shoes.

She grew up in a house where amplifiers and guitar cases were just as much a part of the furniture as chairs and tables, and when most kids are still singing nursery rhymes in the bathtub, she was traveling across North America in a 34 foot motor home, performing professionally in her family band, The Neilsons.

Sharing the stage with the likes of Johnny Cash, Tami appeared regularly on television and radio, touring North America, promoting The Neilsons independent CD, releasing 2 top 40 singles on the Canadian music charts.

Then Tami met a boy who caused her heart to flutter and her feet to move to the other side of the world.

She arrived in New Zealand, releasing her Tui award-winning debut solo album, Red Dirt Angel, which included the single Sister Cash, a duet with Joanne Cash. Her second release, The Kitchen Table Sessions won Best Country Album 2010, making her the first person to win the award two years in a row. Hot on the heels of being presented “Best Female Country Artist” at the 2011 New Zealand Country Music Awards, this highly prolific artist released Volume 2 of The Kitchen Table Sessions, which has just won her a third Tui Award in 2012.

Buzzing with raw energy and talent, her music is a hybrid of acoustic torch and stripped-bare country blues. From haunting ballads of heartbreak and irony to foot-stomping, hand-clapping, harmony-infused numbers, Tami’s live performance is one to be remembered.

“Truly top shelf….Tami Neilson has the looks and the voice to get any song across to any audience…” -Randy Bachman of ‘The Guess Who’

“…alarmingly good...” – Graham Reid, Elsewhere

“Neilson sings her heart out, recalling a cross between Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline…” –Grant Smithies, Sunday Magazine


Photo Credit: Sabin Holloway

Links

• Artist Website
• Facebook Page
• Twitter Page
• Youtube Page
• Instagram Page
• Bandcamp Page
• Spotify Page