Album Review – Tami Neilson’s “Neon Cowgirl”

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photo: Alexa King Stone

Countrypolitan (#510.5) and Country Soul (#577) on the Country DDS.

It doesn’t even feel apt to characterize Tami Neilson as a “musician” in the conventional sense. She’s a force of nature, a Category 5 Typhoon blowing in from the archipelago, a volcanic eruption of power and talent barely constrained by the rules and tenets of music and performance. The only thing keeping her from being considered a titan of our time in popular music is proximity as a Canadian living in New Zealand. But after performances at the Grand Ole Opry and on Willie Nelson’s Outlaw tour, folks are waking up. And how could you snooze through the Tami Neilson experience?

As she proves in the opening track of her new album—the soaring, countrypolitan-sounding song “Foolish Heart” that awakens notions of Patsy Cline—Tami can do things and go places that other singers and songwriters just can’t. And though we feel blessed she brings these gifts to the domain of country music, she also graces soul, blues, and rockabilly with her vocal aptitudes and deft writing. You hear it all showcased on her new album Neon Cowgirl. But blessedly, it’s more country than it is anything else.

You can often tell how respected a musician is by the peers who line up to work with them. In Tami Neilson’s case, along with boasting Willie Nelson as a previous duet partner, JD McPherson, Ashley McBryde, Grace Bowers, The Secret Sisters, Shelly Fairchild, and Neil Finn all appear on this album, with McBryde, Bowers, and Fairchild appearing on stage with Tami on the Grand Ole Opry for a rousing rendition of “Borrow My Boots.”

Tami Neilson has never shied away from saying what she means, and meaning what she says in her music. “Borrow My Boots” is about kicking down doors and climbing over the hurdles many of the women face in the music business. “Heartbreak City USA” is a scathing, twangy takedown of Nashville’s boulevard of broken dreams. “U-Haul Blues” speaks to the housing crisis affecting so much of the United States. But as she sings in “Love Someone,” these sentiments aren’t shared solely from a place of spite and hate. They come from a place for concern for her common man (and woman), and a willingness to offer her own back to lift someone up, or a shoulder to cry on.


Some can find Tami Neilson to be a little too much with her big hair, big voice, big opinions, and boisterous personality. But she finds a great balance on Neon Cowgirl of showcasing her talents and skills as a singer/songwriter, while favoring her country roots in a way that forces her to dial it back sometimes and be just a shade more sedate. This is illustrated best in the comparatively understated “Loneliness of Love,” which underscores that Tami’s not just a powerhouse singer and personality. She’s a great songwriter who can still exude strong emotions even in hushed tones.

To understand pain, you often have to feel and experience it yourself. Over the Holidays in 2022/2023, Tami Neilson had to undergo multiple surgeries after a gallbladder removal turned into abdominal sepsis and a collapsed lung. There was serious concern for Tami at the time. Then last year her brother and guitar player Jay Neilson had a small lesion removed from his forehead in what was supposed to be a routine procedure that ultimately turned into multiple seizures and doctors having to remove part of his skull. Jay is a co-writer on many of the tracks of Neon Cowgirl.

Perseverance over adversity is the ultimate lesson and inspiration one can take from Tami Neilson, and Neon Cowgirl specifically. Against all odds and as a perennially overlooked underdog, she’s determinedly soldiered forward, earning champions along the way. And like a 20-foot neon cowgirl, beats back the darkness to glow as a beacon of strength and determination.

8.2/10

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Purchase/Stream Neon Cowgirl

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