Tami Neilson – Chickaboom!
Outside Music – 14 February 2020
A Canadian based in New Zealand, Tami Neilson has a voice so powerful she could probably sing in one country and be recorded in the other. The cover features her in a big hair beehive that makes Dolly Parton’s seem demure, this is her seventh album since marrying, relocating and leaving the Nielson Family Band for a solo career.
The opening track, Call Your Mama, on which she gives her man his marching orders, but keeps the ring, leaves you in little doubt as to what lies in store, clanging guitars and percussion driving an old school R&B flavoured country swagger, kicking into the rockabilly slap of Hey, Bus Driver! and from there, loose-limbed bass and handclap percussion sees the scratching through hard times Ten Tonne Truck (featured in Folk Radio’s recent Lost in Transmission mix) comes on like a souped-up snowplough motoring through a drift, Neilson cackling a growly “ha ha ha” over the guitar breaks.
Well into her stride, Queenie, Queenie calls Shirley Ellis and The Clapping Song to mind with its percussive rhythm, although where Ellis sang with a sort of schoolgirl insouciance, Neilson is all voodoo mama slink. And from one 60s touchstone to another as, slowing down to a prowl, You Were Mine gives you the Eartha Kitt/Shirley Bassey frisson while 16 Miles of Chain, heads out into classic torch country territory on the back of reverb guitar and echoing chugging riffs like some diva version of Tennessee Ernie Ford cross-bred with Nancy Sinatra, smouldering with an earthy sensuality compared to which Peggy Lee sounds like a nun.
Uptempo golden age rock n roll country scorches the tracks with the frantic Tell Me That You Love Me, the tempo shifting to the vocal harmony duet with brother Jay on the 60s high school love pop of Any Fool With A Heart and memories of the Everlys, Mickey & Sylvia, Bobby Rydell and their ilk. It ends too soon with, first, a return to the twang and handclaps on Sister Mavis, a gospel swing homage to Mavis Staples, and finally the lovely hula sway of the lullabying Sleep where she proves she can caress you as well as pin you to the wall with her voice.
With just two tracks that pass the three-minute mark, Neilson said she wanted to make an album of popping firecrackers. This is a veritable Fourth of July display.
Photo credit: Sabin Holloway