Tami Neilson will be releasing her latest album “Neon Cowgirl” on 11th July 2025 via Outside Music. The Canadian-born New Zealand singer-songwriter will also be touring in the US with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan as part pf the Outlaw Festival tour. She will also be playing three shows in Europe on the third week of June 2025. Details can be found here. The album follows her latest album of original material, “Kingmaker” (2022), and her album of Willie Nelson songs, “Neilson Sings Nelson” (2024).
The album is named for the neon cowgirl sign over Broadway in downtown Nashville which Neilson flet watched her teenage and twenties self grow up. Neilson picks it up: “Basking in her glow, I walked wide-eyed into the Ryman Auditorium as a 16-year-old, clutching my ticket. Later that night, dreaming of standing on that stage, I drifted off to sleep in the bunk of our home on wheels at the KOA next to the Opry. When I was 18, she saw me flipping through Loretta Lynn CDs in Ernest Tubb Record Shop after performing the breakfast and lunch shows on the General Jackson showboat with my parents and brothers in our family band, The Neilsons. At 25, she watched me running all over town, meeting up with other songwriters-writing, writing, writing-before I had to fly back home to Canada again.”
The album came about from Neilson wanting to reconnect with Nashville and country music starting with a 5-month RV trip. However, shortly before the family was due to depart New Zealand, Neilson wound up in the ICU with sepsis. Eventually she was able to make the trip, during which she collected the songs for the album. At the end though Neilson says “..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.” You can pre-order “Neon Cowgirl” here.
Neilson has released ‘You’re Gonna Fall,’ the first single from “Neon Cowgirl.” The song pairs Neilson with JD McPherson for a country noir song redolent of classic Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood duets. It will be featured on an upcoming episode of the New Zealand detective series “The Brokenwood Mysteries”.
“ Nicole Atkins asked me who my dream collaborators would be, I said I would love to work with JD McPherson.” McPherson is a friend of Atkins and was in town that week. Atkins messaged him attaching a video of Neilson at the Ryman and the collaboration was born.
Peter Hall peteer@partisanpr.com
