Graham Reid | | 1 min read
I Never Cared for You
Tami Neilson has had an unfortunate run of bad luck recently. In January 2020 the influential Nashville magazine No Depression confidently announced “Just call 2020 'The Year of Tami' and said her forthcoming album Chickaboom was “the first great album of the year”.
She was geared up for a tour on the back of Chickaboom which ticked all the boxes for the US audience, and then Covid struck.
When that was over she was ready to get back out there with her Kingmaker album which included her Beyond the Stars duet – remotely recorded – with Willie Nelson but before she could take full advantage of it she had troubles of her own which sidelined her again.
Recovering from that illness and looking for “a simple and joy-filled project”, Neilson settled on a tribute-cum-thanks to Willie Nelson for his inspiration, and for singing on Beyond the Stars, a 2022 love letter to her late father.
Recording with her brothers Jay and Todd in Nelson's private studio in Texas – Willie's engineer Steve Chadie on piano – Neilson avoided Nelson's familiar classic with the exception of a moving treatment of Always on my Mind (the Elvis song Nelson made his own) and Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.
Neilson unearths lesser-known material like the sentimental Shelter of Your Arms and the dramatic Tex-Mex I Never Cared For You, inhabits the spiritual I Thought About You and digs deep into country-soul on The Sound in Your Mind. There's also an acoustic version of Beyond the Stars with Willie and that eloquent Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.
It is a terrific album and Tami was ready to tour it with her brother Jay when he fell with serious medical issues. She is still touring it but she must wonder who up there she had so offended that these past years would have been made so difficult and draining.
But as always, her music – and in this case her music and Willie's – still shines through.
More than a tribute or career digression, this is in the lineage of Neilson's life, generously spotlighting the breadth of Nelson's writing.
File alongside Nilsson Sings Newman.
.
Tami Neilson talks us through the songs on this album here
.
You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
post a comment