Tami Neilson – Neon Cowboy ft. Neil Finn: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day

Tami Neilson, a Canadian native who calls New Zealand home, teams up with fellow Kiwi and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn for the fourth single from her upcoming album, NEON COWGIRL, her highly-anticipated follow up to Kingmaker.

Here is the blurb with more:

Tami and Neil duet on the title track, an autobiographical song dedicated to a younger version of herself, a girl who spent her childhood on the road performing in her family’s gospel band, The Neilsons. The version of herself that left Canada and her brother and longtime collaborator, Jay Neilson, to make a new life and start a family of her own in New Zealand. After decades in the musical trenches, her dreams were starting to come true. In 2023 she and Jay played the Ryman for the first time and 2024 found her wowing the audience at her Grand Ole Opry debut.

Tami shares the story behind the song:

“I wish I could time travel and play this song for past versions of myself.

“The teenager sleeping on the floor on a mattress after her family band had lost everything. She got a job at the makeup counter of a local pharmacy. Her small paycheque supported all five of them for a while. ‘Fall at Your Feet’ by Crowded House played multiple times a day through the pharmacy speakers. She sang the harmony quietly, feeling defeated and wondering if she’d ever be in music again.

“The 27-year-old who sat in the audience with her brother Jay in the darkness of Toronto’s Massey Hall, listening to Neil Finn and his brother Tim sing ‘Disembodied Voices,’ a song about siblings. She grabbed Jay’s hand while they both cried, knowing she was moving across the world to New Zealand in just a few weeks.

“Two decades later, I walked through the doors of the Ryman Auditorium to fulfill a lifelong dream of performing on that stage for the first time. Neil had invited me to open for Crowded House —the Kiwis invading Nashville! Jay was by my side, my husband and children in the wings, the Finns watched side stage, the audience were on their feet and the Neon Cowgirl shone down on us all.”

On July 11, NEON COWGIRL will be released on Outside Music. The album features guests JD McPherson, Neil Finn, Grace Bowers, and Ashley McBryde and Shelly Fairchild, who co-wrote Tami’s current Americana radio single, “Borrow My Boots.” Following dates in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, Tami and her band joined Willie Nelson, and then Willie and Bob Dylan, on select dates on the 2025 Outlaw Music Festival tour. They also played Willie’s Fourth of July Picnic and were invited back for two appearances at The Grand Ole Opry. The “fire-breathing R&B belter” (Rolling Stone) and “full-tilt badass” (Saving Country Music ) is still chasing that dream, and with NEON COWGIRL, she may well have achieved it.

PRE-SAVE / PRE-ORDER NEW ALBUM via OUTSIDE MUSIC

ABOUT NEON COWGIRL – BY TAMI NEILSON

The Neon Cowgirl, towering over Broadway like the patron saint of heartbreak in downtown Nashville as she smiles coyly over her shoulder in red cowboy boots, watched me grow 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. At 30, I returned as a newlywed on my honeymoon, flying in from New Zealand where I’d moved for love, holding hands with my new husband in Hatch Show Print, introducing him to her like a family member. A decade passed without her as I built a life on the other side of the world and raised 2 babies. My heart raced as I returned to her again to showcase at Americanafest, playing to 12 people at 3rd and Lindsley. 5 years and many showcases later, I swear she smiled right at me as I stopped to point her out to my two children as we walked past her, into the doors of the Ryman to finally perform for the first time.

NEON COWGIRL represents a lifelong dream of chasing Nashville and country music. I’ve loved her my whole life, even when she breaks my heart over and over again.

This album came rumbling to life on 6 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 5-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 2 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.

FOLLOW  TAMI NEILSON:

WEBSITE / SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC / YOUTUBE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER / BANDCAMP

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