Tami Neilson Photo: RNZ / Andre Upston
After years of feeling at the mercy of music industry "gatekeepers", country star Tami Neilson has realised she's actually in charge.
The title track on her brand-new album Kingmaker is about claiming the power she's had all along.
'['Kingmaker' is about] coming to this realisation that 'hold on, it's my famine that made your feast, without me you have no power'… and kind of stepping into that power, owning it, and realising you've been a king this whole time," Tami tells Charlotte Ryan.
Tami and her band perform tracks from Kingmaker and a rare cover song in our Auckland studio.
Tami Neilson kicks off a national tour on 30 July in Auckland. You can find all details and dates of her shows here.
Like most people, Tami says she's spent most of her life feeling afraid of what other people think.
Doing your thing without being held back by other people's opinions takes focus and commitment, she tells Charlotte Ryan.
"It's a choice I have to make when I perform or I write these songs. It is definitely a choice, it's not something that happens naturally or by default."
Then there's the Canadian thing - Tami was born in Toronto and moved to New Zealand in 2007.
Canadians arent quite as reserved as Kiwis and the tall poppy syndrome is real here, Tami says.
Seeing her music empower and embolden the younger women and girls at her shows is what puts "the gas in her tank".
Add to that the songwriting stamp of approval from none other than Willie Nelson, who sings with her on the Kingmaker track 'Beyond the Stars'.
Tami rehearsed with the American country music legend in his living room the day before joining him on stage at his Luck Reunion music festival.
"We'd play and he'd just stop. And he looked at me and goes 'that's a good line right there'... [And I'd think] 'am I dreaming right now?
"I don't care what you think of my music. Willie loves it - I'm good," she laughs.
Although Tami rarely performs covers, she got permission from Willie's son Lukas Nelson to perform his original song 'The Seed' for this RNZ session.
The song is about three women forced to bring their pregnancies to term and Lukas wrote it in response to the recent overturning of the Roe Vs Wade abortion legislation.
It's important for men to also speak up against the oppression of women, Tami says, and a male writing a song like 'The Seed' demonstrates "true allyship" with women.
"Every verse in this song has happened to a woman in my family - and that's just my family. We all know women who have been through these experiences.
"At the end of the day, valuing a woman's life and her choices about her body and the safety of that body and what's right in her life is so so important and something that is suffering terribly in our world right now.'
2022 is both an exciting and nerve-wracking time to be a touring musician as so much can go wrong, Tami says.
"But also we just can't wait to get out and connect with people again. There's just nothing like the connection live music brings."
