“NEON COWGIRL embodies a lifelong dream of chasing Nashville and country music. I have loved it my whole life, even though it keeps breaking my heart.” - TAMI NEILSON
June 18, 2025: Tami Neilson has been described as a “fire-breathing R&B singer” (Rolling Stone) and a “hard-hitting type” (Saving Country Music), electrifying colleagues and fans worldwide with her powerful, soulful voice and captivating stage presence. The Canadian-born artist, who lives in New Zealand with her family, grew up on the road, traveling North America in an RV with her family band, The Neilsons. Today, she draws from her own story with her latest single “Foolish Heart,” a song inspired by Roy Orbison. She met the late legend as a baby when her father’s band supported him on tour. The lush string arrangements and the sublime vocals of the song evoke the epic, country-political sound of some of Orbison's hits from the 60s and were recorded live in a single take in one room. Tami is also releasing a companion video for “Foolish Heart,” which was also recorded in one take.
The link to FOOLISH HEART is as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j8Y0YQ8AQI
“I grew up with a photo of Roy Orbison holding me in his arms, wedged in the pages of my baby book,” she recalls. “I was still a toddler when my father performed with him at a concert. When he met Roy backstage afterward, he asked Roy if he could hold his new daughter while he took a photo of us. Roy's face lit up with joy, and he gladly agreed. I like to think of that moment as my true baptism. A tiny speck of his magic fell on my bald little head, a pivotal moment in my musical destiny. As I drove past his old house in Nashville, I felt a deep sadness as I thought about the tragedy and heartache that plagued him in his short life, and this song bubbled out of me. I called the demo 'Orbiting Orbison' - that's as close as we can get to his greatness.”
“I wanted to capture a real-life moment that artists experience when they leave the stage - from the applause and connection of thousands of people to the utter loneliness in the silence when we strip away the layers of artificiality,” explains Tami. “That's how we all feel when we take off our brave faces and allow ourselves to fall apart and release the pain we carry within us. This is a recording that was completely made by people, with their foolish hearts beating in their chests.”
NEON COWGIRL will be released on July 11 on Outside Music and features guests like JD McPherson, Ashley McBryde, Grace Bowers, Shelly Fairchild, and Neil Finn. Tami and her band will accompany Willie Nelson, and then Willie and Bob Dylan, on this year's Outlaw Festival Tour. She will also perform at Willie’s Fourth of July Picnic and at several dates at the Grand Ole Opry.
Tami Neilson on Neon Cowgirl:
The Neon Cowgirl, who stands like the patron saint of heartbreak over Broadway in Downtown Nashville, shyly smiling over her shoulder in red cowboy boots, has seen me grow up.
Basking in her glory, I entered the Ryman Auditorium as a 16-year-old with wide eyes, clutching my ticket. Later that night, I dreamed of standing on that stage and fell asleep in the bunk of our RV at the KOA next to the Opry. When I was 18, she watched me flip through Loretta Lynn CDs in the Ernest Tubb Record Shop after I had performed with my parents and brothers in our family band The Neilsons at the breakfast and lunch shows on the General Jackson Showboat. At 25, she saw me running all over town meeting with other songwriters - write, write, write - before I had to fly back to Canada. At 30, I returned as a newlywed on my honeymoon, flying in from New Zealand, where I had moved for love, holding hands with my new husband at Hatch Show Print and introducing him to her like a family member. A decade passed without her while I built a life on the other side of the world and raised two children. My heart raced as I returned to her to play at Americanafest in front of 12 people at 3rd and Lindsley. Five years and many performances later, I swear she smiled at me as I stopped to point out my two children to her as we passed by and walked through the doors of the Ryman to finally perform for the first time.
NEON COWGIRL embodies a lifelong dream of chasing Nashville and country music. I have loved it my whole life, even though it keeps breaking my heart.
This album was brought to life on 6 wheels on the highways of North America. I wanted our children, who were born and raised in New Zealand, to get a taste of the Neilson family legacy - a five-month pilgrimage from coast to coast and back again in a 36-foot RV. It was also my one-time chance in my career, which I had slowly and steadily built over a decade in small 2-3 week steps, to go all out by traveling back and forth from the other side of the world. Then, just two months before our trip, I ended up in the hospital for a month, fighting for my life in the ICU with sepsis. Our journey changed from one where I wanted to go full throttle to advance my career to one where I wanted to recover and heal slowly. It became a time when I enjoyed life to the fullest and savored precious moments with my family in a way that only someone can after a near-death experience. We zigzagged across the country, from the ghostly halls of Graceland to the technicolor desert of Salvation Mountain, from neon graveyards in Las Vegas to buffalo herds in Montana. At each location, I gathered the seeds for these songs. As they bloomed, there were intersections 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 above all, it became a love letter to my Neon Cowgirl. Or, more precisely, a love letter. Because she keeps breaking your foolish heart if you let her.
June 18, 2025: Tami Neilson has been described as a “fire-breathing R&B singer” (Rolling Stone) and a “hard-hitting type” (Saving Country Music), electrifying colleagues and fans worldwide with her powerful, soulful voice and captivating stage presence. The Canadian-born artist, who lives in New Zealand with her family, grew up on the road, traveling North America in an RV with her family band, The Neilsons. Today, she draws from her own story with her latest single “Foolish Heart,” a song inspired by Roy Orbison. She met the late legend as a baby when her father’s band supported him on tour. The lush string arrangements and the sublime vocals of the song evoke the epic, country-political sound of some of Orbison's hits from the 60s and were recorded live in a single take in one room. Tami is also releasing a companion video for “Foolish Heart,” which was also recorded in one take.
The link to FOOLISH HEART is as follows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j8Y0YQ8AQI
“I grew up with a photo of Roy Orbison holding me in his arms, wedged in the pages of my baby book,” she recalls. “I was still a toddler when my father performed with him at a concert. When he met Roy backstage afterward, he asked Roy if he could hold his new daughter while he took a photo of us. Roy's face lit up with joy, and he gladly agreed. I like to think of that moment as my true baptism. A tiny speck of his magic fell on my bald little head, a pivotal moment in my musical destiny. As I drove past his old house in Nashville, I felt a deep sadness as I thought about the tragedy and heartache that plagued him in his short life, and this song bubbled out of me. I called the demo 'Orbiting Orbison' - that's as close as we can get to his greatness.”
“I wanted to capture a real-life moment that artists experience when they leave the stage - from the applause and connection of thousands of people to the utter loneliness in the silence when we strip away the layers of artificiality,” explains Tami. “That's how we all feel when we take off our brave faces and allow ourselves to fall apart and release the pain we carry within us. This is a recording that was completely made by people, with their foolish hearts beating in their chests.”
NEON COWGIRL will be released on July 11 on Outside Music and features guests like JD McPherson, Ashley McBryde, Grace Bowers, Shelly Fairchild, and Neil Finn. Tami and her band will accompany Willie Nelson, and then Willie and Bob Dylan, on this year's Outlaw Festival Tour. She will also perform at Willie’s Fourth of July Picnic and at several dates at the Grand Ole Opry.
Tami Neilson on Neon Cowgirl:
The Neon Cowgirl, who stands like the patron saint of heartbreak over Broadway in Downtown Nashville, shyly smiling over her shoulder in red cowboy boots, has seen me grow up.
Basking in her glory, I entered the Ryman Auditorium as a 16-year-old with wide eyes, clutching my ticket. Later that night, I dreamed of standing on that stage and fell asleep in the bunk of our RV at the KOA next to the Opry. When I was 18, she watched me flip through Loretta Lynn CDs in the Ernest Tubb Record Shop after I had performed with my parents and brothers in our family band The Neilsons at the breakfast and lunch shows on the General Jackson Showboat. At 25, she saw me running all over town meeting with other songwriters - write, write, write - before I had to fly back to Canada. At 30, I returned as a newlywed on my honeymoon, flying in from New Zealand, where I had moved for love, holding hands with my new husband at Hatch Show Print and introducing him to her like a family member. A decade passed without her while I built a life on the other side of the world and raised two children. My heart raced as I returned to her to play at Americanafest in front of 12 people at 3rd and Lindsley. Five years and many performances later, I swear she smiled at me as I stopped to point out my two children to her as we passed by and walked through the doors of the Ryman to finally perform for the first time.
NEON COWGIRL embodies a lifelong dream of chasing Nashville and country music. I have loved it my whole life, even though it keeps breaking my heart.
This album was brought to life on 6 wheels on the highways of North America. I wanted our children, who were born and raised in New Zealand, to get a taste of the Neilson family legacy - a five-month pilgrimage from coast to coast and back again in a 36-foot RV. It was also my one-time chance in my career, which I had slowly and steadily built over a decade in small 2-3 week steps, to go all out by traveling back and forth from the other side of the world. Then, just two months before our trip, I ended up in the hospital for a month, fighting for my life in the ICU with sepsis. Our journey changed from one where I wanted to go full throttle to advance my career to one where I wanted to recover and heal slowly. It became a time when I enjoyed life to the fullest and savored precious moments with my family in a way that only someone can after a near-death experience. We zigzagged across the country, from the ghostly halls of Graceland to the technicolor desert of Salvation Mountain, from neon graveyards in Las Vegas to buffalo herds in Montana. At each location, I gathered the seeds for these songs. As they bloomed, there were intersections 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 above all, it became a love letter to my Neon Cowgirl. Or, more precisely, a love letter. Because she keeps breaking your foolish heart if you let her.
