“Neilson Sings Nelson” is a collection of Tami Neilson’s Favourite Songs by Willie Nelson

Tami: When I flew to Texas in March for Luck Reunion, I booked Willie's Pedernales studio (no longer open to the public, he just tracks his vocals and guitar there these days). The plan was to have Willie’s engineer Steve Chadie record just Jay and I playing acoustic covers over 3 days, with the intent of it being a gift for Willie on his 90th bday. I flew my brother Todd and his colleague Craig down to film and document the whole thing- but that quickly led to Todd playing drums (our first time recording together since the family band days) and Craig adding some piano (Sister Bobbie's piano) so it became a bit bigger than just an acoustic project. I also pulled in Black Opry artist Nicky Diamonds to duet on a song, as he was in town for Luck.

I tried to stick to deeper cuts, rather than just the well known hits, as to make it my own and give it more of an original feel- with one or two of the bigger songs in there as well. I also included the stripped back acoustic version of Beyond the Stars, which Willie Nelson also recorded with me once again.