The Nullarbor Plain in South Australia isn't renowned as a breeding ground for country music, but it proved to be fertile soil for Kasey Chambers. It was while she was growing up there that she absorbed all the classic values of country, and learned how to approach the music from her own unique point of view. She had plenty of help from her father, Bill, who worked as a country music teacher when he could tear himself away from his day job of trapping foxes. From ballads to bluegrass, gospel to rock & roll, Kasey's songs have got everything you could ever hope to find in Nashville, but they're given a keen edge by her heartfelt lyrics, then punched home by her powerfully emotive voice. "I feel that I get down to the roots of the music like Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris," Kasey thinks. "It's not surprising, since I grew up listening to Gram Parsons and Hank Williams."
Kasey had learned from the best, and when her debut solo album, The Captain, was released in Australia last year, the Australian press were delighted to find that they had a genuine world-class talent on their hands. The Sydney Morning Herald didn't beat about the bush: "A star is born," the paper declared. At the CMAA Country Music Awards, Kasey scooped "Female Artist Of The Year" and "Album Of The Year". Now it's high time the rest of the world found out about her.
Anyone familiar with Australia's country music scene - which means almost nobody outside Australia -- already knew about Kasey Chambers from her stint as singer with The Dead Ringer Band, who had endured the familiar fate of earning themselves raves from the critics while the public couldn't see any pressing need to buy their records. But it was the perfect learning environment for Kasey, since she was surrounded onstage by her father, her mother Diane and her brother Nash. When Kasey decided to take the giant leap into a solo career, the crunchy electric guitar chords and stinging solos throughout the songs on The Captain were supplied by her Dad. Nash hopped aboard as musician, producer and Kasey's manager.
The result is an album of striking variety and maturity, performed with impressive panache for a 23-year-old. In particular, The Captain grabs the ear with the disarming directness of its lyrics, where Kasey uses her own experiences of life in rural Australia as the basis for an authentically personal version of country music. "I'm not much like my generation, their music hurts my ears," she announces in the opening song Cry Like A Baby, deliberately establishing herself as a unique voice a world away from the teen-pop or dance charts.
Protection - we do a lot of it these days. Sun cream for our skin, sunglasses for our eyes, condoms for you know where - but do you remember to protect your hearing?
Click to find all the information you need to look after your hearing now so you can enjoy music for years to come
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Australian's Angel Kasey Chambers ...
