The pandemic cloud above Tami Neilson's career has had a silver lining – a duet with Willie Nelson on her forthcoming album and the chance to sing it with him on stage in Texas.
NZ Listener
It's early afternoon on a spring day in the Hill Country west of Austin, Texas. Tami Neilson has just met Willie Nelson in person for the second time in two days. They are on stage at Luck Reunion, a boutique music festival held at his ranch. She's nearing the end of her set – her first live show in many months – and she introduces him by his local honorific "Willie f***ing Nelson" – to a hooting crowd. He was meant to be here a little earlier. "Sorry I'm late," he says as they hug and Neilson brushes back happy tears.
The 88-year-old straps on "Trigger", the battered nylon-stringed Martin guitar he's played for 50-plus years. And with Tami's brother Jay Neilson's electric guitar gently putting the song into gear, they're soon away on a waltz-time lament called Beyond the Stars. Neilson's voice soars Patsy Cline-like above Nelson's low harmony on the chorus. Nelson takes the second verse, finding his own melodic thread in his halting speak-sing voice.
As the song rides into the sunset on its final chorus, those gathered out front might be thinking it’s something Nelson could have written in the early 1960s when he was penning hits like Cline’s Crazy or Roy Orbison’s Pretty Paper.
But no, it was written by Neilson and long-time collaborator Delaney Davidson as they bonded about the deaths of their respective fathers. The song speaks to the grief in the Nelson camp, too. A week before the festival, Bobbie Nelson, Willie's older sister and long-time piano player in his Family band, had died at 91.
And here at Luck, it appears to have done the trick. Neilson sees many out front with tears in their eyes. It's struck a chord with those who have lost loved ones in the pandemic, which, in Texas, has killed nearly 90,000 out of a population of 6.7 million.
"I had a woman come up to me after, just sobbing," Neilson tells the Listener, "and she said, 'I lost my father to Covid and I lost my child,' and both of us just stood there sobbing and crying and hugging and she said, 'That song with Willie, it's so timely.'"
As the cheering dies away, Neilson calls her set to a close: "Can we be finished with that because how the hell am I supposed to do anything after that?"
Neilson might have been in Texas to win new fans but, of course, she's been world famous in New Zealand for more than a decade. She's injected soul and sass and a personality as big as her beehive hairdo into country music, as well as being outspoken about the treatment of women in the local industry. She's grabbed an armful of awards along the way and made her career here a springboard to the world.
That has included Canada and the US, where in the 80s and 90s, the Toronto-born singer toured with her brothers and parents as the Neilsons.
She migrated to New Zealand in the late 2000s, married and started a family. Neilson released her first solo album in 2008 before hitting her stride – and fusing that bold, retro-styled image to a vintage sound – with her 2014 and 2015 second and third albums Dynamite! and Don't Be Afraid.
With the release of her early 2020 album, Chickaboom!, she was finally picking up serious attention in North America. This was going to be her year. She had Texas in her sights, with invites to play at Luck Reunion and South by Southwest in Austin.
But as the pandemic took hold, Neilson cancelled. Luck moved online. On the day they played via webcam, Neilson and guitarist Brett Adams rushed to the Auckland premises of her record label because of dodgy internet strength at her home in rural Waimauku. They did a short acoustic set early in the day, as did Lucinda Williams, Neil Young and the festival's host.
And that was mostly that. Except Neilson's performance had found her a new following on social media. Among them, someone called Annie. They chatted back and forth for three months or so. She did the same with Jay, Neilson's Canada-based brother and guitarist-sideman. One day, he messaged his sister: "Do you realise who Annie is?"
Annie D'Angelo is Mrs Willie Nelson and the mother of musician sons Lukas and Micah Nelson.
"I was so glad I didn't know who she was or I would have just been a big goober. I love that we formed this friendship without me knowing who she was. I would imagine it was refreshing for her, too, becoming friends with her for her and not because of who she's connected with."
On her last trip overseas, Tami and Jay had recorded a session for American satellite radio giant Sirius XM. Asked to cover a Christmas song for later, they chose the Nelson-penned Pretty Paper.
It came out in late 2020. Soon, D'Angelo messaged "he loves your version", and Neilson figured she could die happy. For Neilson and her musical family, Willie Nelson has just always been there.
When the family were at home, her father would play Nelson's Stardust on repeat. When the Neilsons were on the road, they would close shows with a gospel medley that included Nelson's arrangement of the traditional Uncloudy Day. His albums made it easy to find the Neilson catalogue in the shops.
"I always remember when we first started performing and recording as a family, the thrill of first getting your CD or tape in music stores. I'd always run into a music store and I'd look for the Willie Nelson section because we were always right behind him."
With 2020 largely written off on the live front, Neilson started preparing the recording of her fifth album, Kingmaker. She reconvened with Davidson and Beyond the Stars came out of conversations about having both lost their fathers. It's something Neilson had addressed before on Don't Be Afraid, recorded in the months after Ron Neilson died.
"Delaney met my dad, I met his. They were our No 1 fans."
Neilson knew the song was something special. She was also now friends with the wife of an iconic country star who had a way with duets. After all, in his time, he had swapped lines with Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan, Sinead O'Connor, Snoop Dogg, Norah Jones, Ray Charles, and Julio Iglesias, plus quite a few unknowns. Still, Neilson was torn about asking.
"I didn't want her to think this whole time I've been playing some scam to get to him. I almost didn't ask because I was just too afraid to ruin our friendship. We were having a conversation one night and she brought up him doing a duet with a friend of theirs who is not famous … and I thought, 'Well, I have to jump off this cliff.' So I asked. That's the first hurdle. Then there was the next hurdle of sending our song to one of the best songwriters in the world."
D'Angelo promised they would listen to the demo recording and live with it for a while. Soon, the album recording at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios in Auckland was under way. With no definite word from Texas, they recorded the track hoping the key might be suitable. Neilson laid down her elegant vocal and got Adams to play Nelson's stand-in. Strings and an angelic backing choir seemingly beamed in from the late 1950s swirled above.
Beyond the Stars was finished, but for a guest who was yet to RSVP. The uncompleted track was sent to Nelson's regular studio engineer, Steve Chadie, just in case. Weeks passed. Auckland went back into lockdown. The deadline for the album's final mastering approached. Neilson got up the nerve to get in touch with D'Angelo. "Leave it with me," she replied.
Months passed. The mastering deadline was days away. Neilson was on a socially distanced walk with a friend near Hobsonville Pt when D'Angelo texted: "You're going to love this sis. He's recorded it. We're listening to the playback now."
Neilson raced home to find an email with a rough mix had arrived. She and husband Grant listened as Nelson's voice wandered in and made itself at home in the song. He'd also added a solo on Trigger.
"Both of us just sat there in our lounge crying and crying. I probably cried for three days straight. It was so overwhelming and even now there's still a part of my brain that won't process it. Hearing that voice that is so familiar, and has been a part of my life since I was born, and that's so tied with my childhood memories, and my family and my dad … hearing it sing harmony with mine. It still blows my mind. I've heard it a million times now and it never ever feels normal."
As the album headed into its final mix and mastering, an invite arrived to be part of the revived 2022 Luck Reunion, and with it the possibility of singing the duet live. The border reopening came in the nick of time, so she booked her flights and arranged for a thank-you gift – a custom-made hat by Wellington milliner Hills Hats, which was a nod in its design to both Nelson's Stardust album and the duet
"I carried it all the way to Texas in a hat-can as my carry-on and had about 20 people ask me what it was."
Arriving in Austin, Neilson thought Bobbie Nelson's death might mean a chance to perform the duet was now unlikely. After a tearful airport reunion with Jay, who she hadn't seen in person for two years, they drove to Luck, where they were staying the week in accommodation that used to be part of a golf course next to the western town set for the 1980s Nelson movie Red Headed Stranger.
Soon after they arrived, D'Angelo invited them to the house to rehearse the song for the next day's performance. Racked with nerves, the siblings arrived at casa del Nelson. The veteran rose to greet them from his seat at his breakfast bar and invited them into the lounge. He liked his new hat. Neilson was struck by how small he is – and gentle and charming and funny and cheeky. He was the down-to-earth Texan boy she had imagined. As they dragged out the guitars to rehearse, D'Angelo reminded Neilson that Rosanne Cash once said childbirth was easier than trying to sing harmony with Willie Nelson.
"That's the magic," Neilson says. "It's almost like his voice dances around you and complements you. Often, duets are almost like two voices becoming one. Whereas I feel our duet is very distinctly two people. And it's his song and it's my song. It feels like a dance."
They ran through the song. At one point, Nelson stopped to critique the lyric. "That's a good line," he quipped and carried on playing. They played it just once, then chatted for an hour.
Later, D'Angelo would mention to Neilson that Nelson had played the song to Bobbie and he had been listening to it on repeat since her passing. In a strange way, that helped Neilson's confidence.
"I said to Jay, 'You know what? We are here for a reason. The focus shouldn't be on me, my singing or my playing. Maybe we were put here to give Willie even the smallest bit of comfort during his time of grief, and if this is something that's going to be cathartic for him or healing for him, then that's way bigger than us.' That kind of switched my focus and my perspective and took those nerves away."
The next day, Neilson and Nelson sang their song together in public for the first time. They sang it again a few days later when her band opened for Nelson on the same stage. The second time, Neilson held back the tears.
"It was so magical getting a chance to do it that second time and actually being able to enjoy it and absorb it without it being this nervous, crazy, fast thing that flies by."
And after a South by Southwest Showcase and a flight out delayed by Texas storms, Neilson was soon back to Waimauku, still buzzing. With the single out this week, she's now readying herself for the release of Kingmaker. Beyond the Stars (feat. Willie Nelson) will be the sweetest, saddest and most reflective moment and sit at its mid-point, or the end of side one.
"I just thought it's the diamond in the setting and it needs to be in the middle."
She's hoping she'll be back at Luck ranch one day. Even if she has to change her name to do it.
"I'm happy for him to adopt me, and I will happily drop the i from my last name. I'm sure my mom will be upset. But, you know, she's had a good run."
• The single Beyond the Stars is out now. The album Kingmaker is due out July 15. A tour with Neilson backed by orchestras in Auckland and Christchurch and a string section in other main centres will take place from July 30 to August 20.