NEW ALBUM NEON COWGIRL OUT JULY 11 ON OUTSIDE MUSIC
Canadian native and New Zealand musical royalty Tami Neilson has released the second single from her upcoming album release Neon Cowgirl.
“Borrow My Boots” is an exuberant, high-octane track celebrating female empowerment and giving a sister a leg up. It’s written by Tami and Nashville powerhouses Ashley McBryde and Shelly Fairchild who are both featured on the track alongside guitar prodigy Grace Bowers.
Tami shares how the single came together:
“After getting to perform on an absolute dream show with an all-star lineup singing the music of Patsy Cline at the Ryman, I woke up the next morning to a DM from one of my favourite country stars, Ashley McBryde. She’d been on the line up and after seeing me perform, she had immediately dug into my catalogue of music and wrote to me to lift me up and encourage me, saying she was a fan. A few weeks later, she tagged me in a post of her getting ready for the red carpet of the CMAs, playing “Careless Woman” as her hype song! A couple months after that, she asked for permission to create a t-shirt with my photo on it and a line from that song, “I Wanna Be Her When I Grow Up” so she could wear it around town as she hosted CMA Fest and champion my music.
That’s how you say, “Hey Sister, you can borrow my boots.”
So, when I had a song idea about women supporting and empowering each other, she was the first person who came to mind. I asked if she would do a long-distance writing session and she invited powerhouse songwriter and artist Shelly Fairchild to join us and “Borrow My Boots” was born, and recorded on the album the next week. I met Grace Bowers back when she was 15 and had just moved to Nashville and I asked her to play her first paid gigs with me at Americanafest – we had to hide her backstage because she wasn’t old enough to be in the venues. She’s rocketing to stardom now and after playing with everyone from Dolly and Slash, to rocking the Grammys, I didn’t know if she’d have time for a little guitar solo on my album. Not only did she contribute a blistering solo, she changed her flights in the middle of a tour to join me, Ashley and Shelly to perform this song at my debut on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.
That’s how you say, “Hey Sister, you can borrow my boots.” – Tami Neilson
NEON COWGIRL will be released on July 11 on Outside Music, with Tami and her band joining Willie Nelson, and then Willie and Bob Dylan, on this year’s Outlaw Festival tour. She will also be playing Willie’s Fourth of July Picnic, and will return to the Grand Ole Opry stage in June. Also in June, Tami will hit Europe for shows in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Her huge, glorious voice and powerful live performances have won the admiration and support of some of country music’s biggest names and fans worldwide. Check this space for tour dates: https://www.tamineilson.com/tour
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.
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