Tami Neilson, Dynamite! - album review: A short but satisfying record

Download: Walk Back to Your Arms; Texas; Cry Over You; Running to You

There’s a spirited, fiery charm to antipodean rockabilly singer Tami Neilson; and in places, something more.

The opening track of Dynamite!, “Walk Back to Your Arms”, with its echoey backing vocal responses and deep, doomed tone of resignation has a haunted mood that grips like a countrified Amy Winehouse: it’s real, not merely retro.

And on “Cry Over You”, a ballad that weighs his love against her tears and finds it wanting, Neilson gives it the full Patsy Cline, her voice cracking with the pity. Elsewhere, the title track and “Come Over and Take Me Out” are galloping good-times invitations, and “Texas” a two-step country croon boasting of “a love the size of Texas”.

Rounding off a short but satisfying set, Delaney Davidson and Ben Woolley bring the spirits of Lee Hazlewood and Willie Nelson, respectively, to bear on the duets “Running to You” and “Whiskey and Kisses”.