WATCH / SHARE “BABY, YOU’RE A GUN” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BABY, YOU’RE A GUN” HERE
EMPOWERING NEW SINGLE HERALDS ACCLAIMED COUNTRY SOUL SINGER-SONGWRITER’S EAGERLY AWAITED FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM
KINGMAKER ARRIVES VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC ON FRIDAY, JULY 15
PRE-SAVE KINGMAKER HERE
“Tami Neilson and Willie Nelson meditate on heavy losses in their new duet…‘Beyond the Stars’ is a mournful ballad in 3/4 time and it takes a close look at the grief brought on by a loved one’s death. Neilson wrote the song after the 2015 loss of her father and, while Nelson acts as her father’s voice in his verse, it takes on an extra poignancy coming so soon after the death of his sister and bandmate Bobbie Nelson.” – ROLLING STONE
“‘Beyond The Stars’ taps into the painful feelings of longing to be with the one you've lost. Neilson and Nelson's vocals blend beautifully on the emotional and poetic song, anchored by a soaring string section.” – THE BOOT
“‘Beyond the Stars’ works to help remedy all loss, giving hope for a reunification someday in the future in the eternal dwelling of the cosmos, delivered via the timeless tones of Willie’s guitar Trigger.” – SAVING COUNTRY MUSIC
“Country music gold. And an absolute tear-jerker. – OUTSIDER
Photo Credit : Sophia Bayly // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Award-winning country soul singer-songwriter Tami Neilson has shared “Baby, You’re A Gun”, available today via Outside Music arrives with a striking lyric video. “Baby, You’re A Gun” marks the latest single from Neilson’s game-changing fifth studio album, KINGMAKER, due July 15. With sweeping strings arranged by award-winning composer/arranger Victoria Kelly and the sound of a lonesome whistle that conjures the cinematic spirit of classic Hollywood Westerns, “Baby, You’re a Gun” sees Neilson exploring society’s underestimation of strong women and the roles they are expected to play.
WATCH / SHARE “BABY, YOU’RE A GUN” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BABY, YOU’RE A GUN” HERE
“Baby, You’re A Gun” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
KINGMAKER also sees Neilson joining forces with the legendary Willie Nelson for the timeless country duet, “Beyond The Stars”. An official music video – directed by Neilson’s brother Todd Neilson and featuring exclusive footage filmed earlier this year at SXSW Music Festival and Nelson’s world famous Luck Reunion in Luck, TX.
WATCH / SHARE “BEYOND THE STARS” WITH WILLIE NELSON HERE
BUY / STREAM “BEYOND THE STARS” WITH WILLIE NELSON HERE
“Beyond The Stars” – which immediately hit the Official NZ Music Chart’s “Top 40 Hot Singles” and “Top 20 NZ Hot Singles” in Neilson’s adopted home country of New Zealand – was further met by critical applause from media outlets around the world.
As noted, this spring saw Neilson lighting up SXSW with a series of dynamic show-stopping performances, including a live performance alongside Nelson at his 10th anniversary Luck Reunion event, the latter captured in a new short film, “Tami Neilson’s Unbelievable Once In A Lifetime Out Of Body Amazing Experience At Luck Reunion”, which is streaming now.
WATCH / SHARE TAMI NEILSON’S UNBELIEVABLE ONCE IN A LIFETIME OUT OF BODY AMAZING EXPERIENCE AT LUCK REUNION
LISTEN TO TAMI NEILSON TALK TO TOM POWER OF CBC Q ABOUT “BEYOND THE STARS” HERE
Known far and wide as an electrifying live act, Neilson will mark the arrival of KINGMAKER with a wide-ranging world tour, beginning Friday, July 8 with two performances at Ottawa’s upcoming RBC Bluesfest and followed by a number of headline shows and festival dates across her homeland of Canada. All dates are listed below and additional North American dates will be announced soon. For updates, please visit www.tamineilson.com/tour.
MORE ABOUT KINGMAKER
Recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios in Neilson’s adopted hometown of Auckland, New Zealand, KINGMAKER marks Neilson’s most provocative and powerful collection to date. Fueled by the world-changing events of the past two years, the album’s songs expose and explode the patriarchal structures that pervade the music industry, family life, and society as a whole. While Neilson has previously explored these themes on such acclaimed LPs as 2018’s SASSAFRASS! (hailed by PopMatters as “a potent social and political statement dressed up in catchy melodies and infectious choruses that sometimes belie the more serious elements taking place deep within the choruses.”), the new album draws these challenging ideas out even further, shining a dramatic musical light on what the late bell hooks referred to as “the politics of domination” that render women nameless and voiceless. Songs like “Baby, You’re A Gun” and the cinematic title track see Neilson giving her own resonant voice to women everywhere – to their strength, power, fierceness, and resilience in the face of structural and cultural barriers to their full participation in society.
Born in Toronto, Tami Neilson has been performing for as long as she can remember, first alongside her parents and brothers in the Canadian country music family band, The Neilsons. From being cradled as a baby in the arms of Roy Orbison, singing with Kitty Wells at the age of 10, and opening for Johnny Cash in her pajamas at 18, she had already led an extraordinary life before leaving North America in 2007 to start her own family on the other side of the world in New Zealand, where she has resided ever since. It was there Neilson forged her own artistic path as a critically acclaimed solo artist and songwriter, busking on the streets of Auckland and performing in countless clubs before ultimately earning wide-ranging applause and myriad NZ-based awards for her booming vocal power and inventive, strikingly personal approach to country, rockabilly, and soul. 2020’s CHICKABOOM! proved her most internationally praised work thus far, with No Depression declaring, “Neilson’s phrasing is impeccable…she gets inside the song, turns it inside and out, and makes it her own. She can soar on the rockers, she can deliver the heart-rending ache of a ballad of lost love, and she can capture the playfulness of a schoolyard rhyme with a joyous seriousness.” With her tireless work ethic, seemingly infinite musical gifts, and subversive songwriting approach, Tami Neilson has already found extraordinary success on her own terms. Now, with the groundbreaking KINGMAKER, she takes her music and message even further, using her one-of-a-kind voice to rattle cages and change the game for those who have been denied their rightful place at the table for far too long.
KINGMAKER TRACKLIST
01 Kingmaker
02 Careless Woman
03 Baby, You’re A Gun
04 King of Country Music
05 Beyond The Stars (Feat. Willie Nelson)
06 Green Peaches
07 Mama’s Talkin’
08 I Can Forget
09 The Grudge
10 Ain’t My Job
TOUR DATES
July 8 – Ottawa Bluesfest
July 9 – Orillia - Mariposa Folk Festival
July 14 – Oshawa – Biltmore Theatre
July 16 – Quebec – FEQ 2022
July 21 – Hamilton – Studio Theatre
July 22 – London – Aeolian Hall
July 23 – Guelph – Hillside Festival
Jul 30 - Auckland, NZ - The Studio
Aug 3 - New Plymouth, NZ - Theatre Royal
Aug 10 - Wellington, NZ - The Opera House
Aug 13 - Tauranga, NZ - Baycourt Addison Theatre
Aug 17 - Nelson, NZ - Theatre Royal
Aug 18 - Dunedin, NZ - Regent Theatre
Aug 20 - Christchurch, NZ - Christchurch Town Hall Auditorium
PRAISE FOR TAMI NEILSON
“Tami Neilson should be this year's Yola. The Canada-born, New Zealand-based singer has boots made for walking, a beehive hairdo fit for a Sixties girl group, and a voice that can take a door off its hinges…She's overdue for a new album. Or maybe she's just waiting for the rest of the world to finally catch up.” – THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE
“Whomever said they don’t make them like they used to obviously hasn’t heard Tami Neilson.”
– ROLLING STONE
“One of today’s most dynamic purveyors of blues, classic country and all manner of musical styles in-between.” – AMERICAN SONGWRITER
“Tami Neilson is a full tilt badass monster of music…one of the best living singers in all of roots music and beyond.” – SAVING COUNTRY MUSIC
“Tami Neilson has strong and powerful pipes, one of those great soul shouter voices that preach the gospel of great music at every turn… Confronting injustice with sass is punk and badass in the best sense of the words and Neilson does it with aplomb.” – POPMATTERS