Review: Tami Neilson Dishes Rockabilly Swagger on 'Chickaboom!'
Tami Neilson has a fondness for exclamation points. Her 2018 album Sassafrass! had one, as did her 2014 release Dynamite! Keeping with the tradition, Neilson's new album, Chickaboom!, also features the emphatic punctuation. That's fitting because “!” is the most succinct way to describe Tami Neilson's music.
The New Zealander by way of Canada has developed a cult following among Americana fans through her appearances at Americanafest, showcasing her booming voice, wry sense of humor, and a personality that is bigger than even her trademark bouffant. Neilson has always done rockabilly as well as anyone in the business. One could argue (and I would) she's the best pure female rockabilly artist since Wanda Jackson, who she in some way resembles both vocally and in stage presence. But, while Chickaboom! contains plenty of booty shaking rockabilly goodness, it also shows off other facets of Neilson's vocal range, from smoky jazz crooning to Western duets to even lullabyes.
The album starts in full rockabilly swagger with “Call Your Mama.” Confronting a cheating lover for “playing around like a cat with a string” she gives him the brush-off, tossing his belongings into the street while noting “sure as hell kept your ring” and wondering “whose food you gonna eat now? Whose bell you gonna ring-a-ding-ding?” In case her obviously dense ex doesn't get the hint, she puts a point on the relationship with “don't you wonder if your days are numbered? One day you're gonna hear gunshots.” It's Tami Neilson doing what Tami Neilson does better than anyone, firing off line after line of quotable material while brother Jay provides a train-steady guitar riff.
She carries that same attitude over to “Queenie Queenie”, the album's highlight, which humorously examines the daily life of women. Sung with just percussion to accompany her, she chants “screaming from the kettle, knocking on the door, baby spilled a bucket full of suds on the floor. Rain starts falling with clothes on the line. What's a stay at home mother do with all that time?” The next verse gets more autobiographical, detailing the work of a traveling musician, noting “mama gotta hustle, book another show, because they won't play a lady-o on country radio.”
“You Were Mine” is the album's first serious diversion from its rockabilly roots. With a smoky delivery reminiscent of Amy Winehouse, it relates a woman much less positive about the end of a relationship than the one in “Call Your Mama”, screaming “the hands on the clock go tick-tock, tick-tock but that ain't the way I measure time. There's before and there's after you were mine.”
Another radical departure is “Any Fool With a Heart.” The song, featuring Jay Neilson's acoustic guitar work as well as his voice on the album's only duet, is so convincingly retro Western that I had to check the album's liner notes to assure myself it wasn't a cover of an old Marty Robbins deep cut I'd previously missed.
Neilson gets to show off her soulful side while paying tribute to one of her heroes with “Sister Mavis.” Noting both Mavis Staples' religious and civil rights work, the shrugs off “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” for her favorite “holy trinity to save us”, Staples, Mahalia Jackson, and Rosetta Tharpe.
February is far to early to start handicapping Americana album of the year contenders, especially with some heavy hitters coming down the pike, but for right now, 2020 hasn't brought anything that even comes close to matching Chickaboom! While the sad realities of corporate country almost certainly ensures her statements on “Queenie Queenie” true, I have a feeling the small but growing Americana radio community will be playing a lot of this particular “lady-o.” I know my Ipod will be.
You can get Chickaboom! at your favorite independent record store on Feb. 14. At this time, all of Neilson's listed concert dates are in Europe but you can keep an eye out here because, when she makes it to America, you're going to want to be there.