Stay out of Tami’s business
Silver Scroll winner Tami Neilson will visit seven cities this winter after the release of her new album Sassafrass, writes
Tami Neilson has lit another stick of dynamite with the release of her new single Stay Out Of My Business and is set to hit the road in July after the release of her new album Sassafrass.
The 2014 Silver Scroll-winner with Walk (Back Into Your Arms), a co-write with brother Jay, who also produced her first three albums, and multiple country music award-winner is barely recognisable as the sweet, Canadian girl whose first few albums were recorded in the family home in with her two brothers and parents and were released as the Kitchen Table Sessions Volume 1 and 2.
Neilson – who has worked with Delaney Davidson, Barry Saunders and Marlon Williams is now a nittygritty, soulful maverick who has all of the sassiness of an Amy Winehouse and a voice to match. On Friday, she announced a seven-city tour of New Zealand. Tickets go sale at noon on Wednesday.
Stay Outta My Business is the first single off Sassafrass, which is due out in June. It was produced by at The Sitting Room in Lyttelton, with Ben
Mike Alexander.
Edwards, who also co-produced her last two critically-acclaimed albums Dynamite! and Don’t Be Afraid.
As the title suggests, Neilson has found her voice lyrically. There’s a lyric, ‘‘how can you leave your babies, you’re a bad mummy?’’, which will resonate with all women with children, but go to work to raise and support them.
‘‘I haven’t literally been called a bad mummy,’’ Neilson says. ‘‘It has definitely been inferred though. Every verse in that song is a true story. It may not have been the words, ‘you are a bad mommy’, but I constantly get asked when I’m on tour, ‘where are your children? Who is looking after them? How could you leave your children?’. That was a conversation I had with a relative when I visiting family in Canada.
‘‘This relative insinuated that, as a mother, I should be at home looking after my children. It touched a raw point in me, because when I am away from my two boys it can be almost crippling. I had to explain that my husband Grant and I were a team. I take care of the children 90 per cent of the time while he is at work. He’s watching them while I am at work. It’s equal parenting.
‘‘Right now, when I am investing in my career , it’s when we have to make sacrifices that will hopefully, in a year or two, after I have done the hard yards, will pay off, because I will have a bigger fanbase, command better appearance fees and won’t have to be away so long. When I said that, my relative said, ‘but right now is when your children need a mother’. It pierced my heart and, while I am not a confrontational type, I just wanted to say ‘stay out of my business’.’’
The is proud to present Tami Neilson’s Sassafrass! Tour, which will visit Nelson’s Theatre Royal (July 26), Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal (July 27), Dunedin’s Glenroy Auditorium (July 28), Hamilton’s Clarence St (August 1), Napier’s MTG Century Theatre (August 2), Wellington’s Opera House (August 3) and the Auckland Town Hall (August 4). For more information, see tamineilson.com
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Sunday Star-Times