Artist: Tami Neilson
Album: Sassafrass!
Label: Outside Music
Release Date: 6.1.2018
Tami Neilson is a Canadian-born New Zealand powerhouse vocalist adept at multiple genres, and Sassafrass!, her third album, is Neilson’s most coherent musical and lyrical statement to date. She added just enough restraint to keep this one from careening out of control. Gone are the overwrought vocals and the unsettling combinations of too many genres in one album. With just slight hints of country and rockabilly, Neilson uses soul music as the foundation, finding a retro late ‘50s or ‘60s groove for subject matter that is serious and relevant.
“Sassafrass” is slang for a sassy person who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Neilson addresses sexism, and her encounters with it as the mother of two young boys. She describes the album this way, “a mouthy lovechild of the current social climate and my own experience as a woman, mother, and daughter. It’s also my attempt to challenge a society that doesn’t yet treat women equally, in order to shape a better future for my children.”
Pulling no punches, she begins with the defiant retort to trash-talkers in “Stay Outta My Business,” propelled by horns and a danceable beat. “Bananas” comes off initially as a breezy, tropical number but its underlying message speaks to gender inequality. Likewise, “Kitty Cat” initially impresses as a rousing rockabilly rave-up but the message is direct – men can’t own a woman’s “kitty cat.” She weighs in on Hollywood sexual harassment in “Devil in a Dress” and “Smoking Gun.”
Neilson also steps away from these themes to pay four tributes. She proves to be a gorgeous balladeer on “Manitoba Sunrise at Motel 6,” written in homage to Glen Campbell on the day he passed. It’s a major highlight of the album. She nods to the late Sharon Jones with appropriate soul in “Miss Jones.” Then, in a style reminiscent of Bobbie Gentry, she renders a tune that her father wrote about her first-nation grandmother in “One Thought of You.” In the closer, “Good Man,” also a tear-inducing ballad, she honors her late father, who led the family’s band, The Neilsons, a popular ‘90s Canadian act.
Her four-piece band, the Hot Rockin’ Band of Rhythm, who were present on her previous two albums and have toured with her for the past three years, return here augmented by a brass section and strings on certain selections. Neilson co-produced the album along with Ben Edwards as she did on her pervious two efforts.
The striking aspect is, of course, Neilson’s take-no-prisoners vocals, but the vintage throwback sound combined with the lyrical messages have Neilson taking a major leap forward.
—Jim Hynes
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