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By: Nick Daunt (additional thoughts by Naiomi Murgatroyd)

Artist: Tami & Jay Neilson

Date: Monday 2nd March 2020

Venue: Auckland Museum, Auckland, NZ

You may have seen Tami Nielson, but I’m guessing you haven’t seen her in a museum before – and hearing that incredible voice of hers soaring to the ceiling was something else. The acoustics in the building were amazing, the natural reverb filling the room with the warmth and power of her voice. As she takes to the stage, looking fabulous in a sequin blue dress, she does a little a capella number to test out the room and instantly grabs our attention. She’s accompanied on this show by her younger brother Jay, looking sharp in his blazer and boots. The two have been singing and making music for a lifetime together and it shows – in the ease with which they joke together on stage, but especially when they sing, the vocal harmonies perfectly complementing each other throughout.

The show consists of two sets, narrated by Tami. She takes us through the journey of her childhood in a musical family and of the great grandparents and grandparents and aunties and uncles and fathers and mothers who have inspired her and shaped her own story. She talks of having to busk on the streets as kids to help her parents make ends meet after their manager took all their money and fled to Panama. She talks of loss and love and starting a new life in New Zealand 16 years ago, of juggling the life of a musician with that of a mother. These incredible stories are punctuated by beautiful performances of covers from country and rock ‘n’ roll artists such as Kitty Wells and the Everly Brothers, sprinkled with a few of her own, ‘A Woman’s Pain’ and ‘Good Man’ from SassaFrass! among them.

A quick costume change and intermission and the two are back for a second set mostly consisting of Tami’s material. Tami has recently released Chickaboom!, an infectious album as good as any in her catalogue, with songs that range from blues-infused stompers to straight-up honky tonk tunes to gorgeous country ballads. A few of these, ‘You Were Mine’, ‘Any Fool with a Heart’ and ‘Sleep’ are in the set, but the rest span her back catalogue. It is in this set that the Neilsons sing in Te Reo, an amazing moment celebrating Tami’s recently earned New Zealand citizenship. Beautifully honouring our country’s indigenous tongue, the pair truly do the language justice. The duo also belt out ‘Moses’ and ‘Walk (Back into Your Arms)’ and everyone is smiling, taking it in. They close by singing in the walkway in the midst of the crowd, just an acoustic guitar and those gorgeous voices with no microphones. It was a beautiful moment and touching way to end a wonderful show.

Sorry but now I have to gripe a little - despite the building’s wonderful acoustics, the same can’t be said for the venue overall. The room had minimal seating and it seemed the museum hadn’t given much thought as to where people would sit. Huge marble columns obstructed much of the view, leaving people to wander back and forth hoping by some miracle they could see a sliver of the stage, or left to sit on the concrete floor in front of the stage. A word of advice - arrive early and stake your claim to a good spot!
There will be more LIVE at the Museum events in May for New Zealand Music Month, including Tiny Ruins and Lawrence Arabia, and they'll be free! Further acts across May to be announced - sign up to our What's On email to get regular updates.

Additional thoughts by Naiomi Murgatroyd

The beating heart of these stories lies in the women at the centre of them; the women in Neilson’s family, her mother, her great-grandmother. Women Neilson has known and been inspired by, like Kitty Wells, who literally re-wrote music to tell it from a woman’s point of view. And of course, Tami Neilson herself and the stories she tells about her own life. Through her music, Neilson tells us about finding love on the other side of the world. She sings to us the love she has for her children, and how a Mum always knows. The loss of her father, discovering his music, the love she has for her family. These narratives of domestic life, of love both romantic and familial, are stories of women the world over. Neilson’s songs reflect the interior lives of women with such clarity and power, it is impossible not to feel that she is not just singing for us, but to us and with us. She sings our joy and love, and equally she sings our heartbreak and grief. In Neilson’s own words, the world turns on a woman’s pain.

I am sure that many of the other women in the room felt the same. We smiled along with Tami when she shamelessly snort-laughed at her own jokes. Hearing a woman talk about winning the Silver Scroll award for songwriting, New Zealand’s highest accolade in music, but prefacing that story with an anecdote about pumping breast milk in the toilets during the intermission? It doesn’t get more real than that.
At the crux to it, Tami Neilson is the real deal. She is a woman and with that comes power, a power that she owns and brings us along with when she sings. Her talent is undeniable, and while her voice is a force to be reckoned with, it is her heart that leaves you wanting more.

Review Edited By: (EDITOR NAME HERE)