Three chords and the truth

Tami Neilson. Photo by Shane Gilchrist.

• It's about your roots

Acclaimed American songwriter Harlan Howard has provided words, music and inspiration to a long and influential list of country music artists.

Those who have sung his songs include Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Ray Charles and Dolly Parton. Despite the many words he has given to others to perform, those from his own lips also echo loudly.

Howard, who died in 2002 at the age of 74, was once asked what made a great country song.

His reply: "Three chords and the truth."

With the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards culminating in the senior finals at Gore's Town and Country Club tomorrow, it's timely, then, to explore Howard's words further.

And who better to ask than one of the awards' judges, Canadian-born singer-songwriter Tami Neilson, and Jackie Bristow, one of three finalists for Best New Zealand Country Music Album.

A re-reading of Howard's answer might be, "simple and honest".

However, to categorise all country music as such is to risk a woefully inadequate generalisation of a genre that has within it many subsets.

For instance, how could you lump a strident gunfighter anthem such as Marty Robbins' El Paso with the swing-time lilt and tender lyrics of, say, Lyle Lovett's The Waltzing Fool? Neilson agrees.

On the road for a series of gigs before her arrival in Gore earlier this week, she believes "emotional resonance" is a better definition for what makes country music such an abiding attraction, both to herself and others.

It is the connection between lyric and listener that's all-important, she says.

"I think the reason there is always a love for country music is because they are songs that people can instantly relate to.

"Everything that is written is normally by real people, people who are just trying to express their hurt or their love . . .

"Country music is one of those genres where you could read out the lyrics and it is actually a story."

Pain and love aside, other well-trodden metaphors include those of revenge and redemption, the metamorphosis from underdog to overlord (and, sometimes, back again), the numerous narratives of blue-collar battlers and the desperation of the dirt-poor.

Neilson explores the latter in her recent album, Red Dirt Angel, the title track evoking more than a sprinkling of the dust so prevalent in the opening paragraphs of literary giant John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath.

Neilson co-wrote the song with Dennis Morgan, a professional lyricist who has been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame on the back of tracks such as Sleeping Single In A Double Bed and I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool, both performed by Barbara Mandrell.

"I had this idea kicking around in my head," Neilson explains.

"I had this image of a Red Dirt Angel.

I guess it was the two opposites combined in one; you think `angel equals pure', and the red dirt coming from a poor background."

From Toronto, Neilson (31) followed her heart (and a man) and moved to Auckland two and a-half years ago (she got married last year).

She was immersed in music from an early age, performing with parents Ron and Betty and younger brothers Todd and Jay in The Neilsons.