Tami Neilson
KINGMAKER
2020
“Kingmaker. Game changer. It could all be mine. I’m waiting. Years fading. One by one, like pearls you throw to the swine.”
Tami Neilson’s masterpiece KINGMAKER is a requiem for what could’ve been that doubles as a rallying cry for what can still be.
Possessing an otherwordly voice that recalls Patsy Cline and Wynonna Judd at their peak prowess but with an aching ferocity that is all her own, Neilson also wields a pen that writes with the sharp brilliance of a Rosanne Cash or a Mary Chapin Carpenter, but her songs are as empathetic as they are cerebral.
All of these skill sets coming together should’ve easily delivered on the multiplatinum precedents set by those legendary ladies, had the Music Row kingmakers not slammed the door two decades ago on the careless women that Neilson sings about on KINGMAKER. She wails for what’s been lost on the title track, which cinematically opens the set, but her trademark spunk and biting wit cannot be contained. “Careless Women” begins Neilson’s reclaiming of her time on behalf of all women who are brave enough to care less, and that transitions into a tribute to the ultimate careless woman: Dolly Parton, on the beautifully written “Baby, You’re a Gun.”
By the album’s midpoint, it’s clear that the requiem is for Music Row itself, as Neilson delivers vocal performances that Connie Smith would’ve needed a V8 to tackle in her heyday. But these aren’t diva exercises designed to show off her powerful pipes. Neilson saves her energy for the personification of her own grief on “Beyond the Stars,” a haunting duet with Willie Nelson, and on the album’s showstopper, “I Can Forget,” which answers the question, “Can she top ‘You Were Mine'” with an emphatic yes.
But the album’s finest moments come with storytelling, of the third person (“Green Peaches”) and first person (“King of Country Music”) variety, with the very best track being a little bit of both, as she recalls her own family history with “The Grudge.” The album’s theme of missed opportunities takes a bittersweet personal turn here, as a man who survived the holocaust cannot triumph over his own pride. Somehow, Tami Neilson’s voice not being heard in his household feels like an even bigger loss than not hearing her on country radio.
But who gives a damn about country radio? In this new digital age, Neilson has found her own way and her own audience by going around that nonsense completely. This singular talent’s voice was deferred but could not be denied. We’ve been on the Nielson train for many years now, and it’s been validating to see her star finally rising on the music charts back home and on the Ryman stage halfway around the world. She has two albums that would’ve made this list instead had she not kept getting better with each release. Consider KINGMAKER her defining artistic statement so far.
Baby, she’s a gun, and she’s always been a king after all.
Additional Listening
More from Tami Neilson
All of Neilson’s albums are worth listening to, but her last four sets have made her one of the strongest albums artists this century:
- 2018’s Sassafrass! is Neilson’s persona fully formed, with the biting “Stay Outta My Business” kicking off a raucous set
- Chickaboom! in its original and deluxe forms didn’t seem possible to top before KINGMAKER did just that, with “You Were Mine” and “Queenie Queenie” among that set’s highest highwater marks
- This year’s Neilson Sings Nelson is one of the great tribute albums of our time, revealing new emotional layers in material familiar (“Always On My Mind”) and less so (“I Never Cared For You”)
Country Universe: A 20th Anniversary Retrospective
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