Kasey Chambers is Having One Heck of a Year
o how far will I go to buy music? Well, I’ve ordered albums from a store called Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane, Australia more than once to obtain new releases from that country’s favorite daughter Kasey Chambers and her husband Shane Nicholson. Thankfully, one of Kasey’s two releases is available in the US and Little Bird just might be her finest recording effort.
Kasey Chambers mixes pop, country, outlaw, and bluegrass with a very distinctive sweet vocal that is her signature. She began her solo career in 1999 with initial singles “The Captain” and “Cry Like A Baby” reaching America via radio stations and television soundtracks including The Sopranos. The hits kept coming ashore with “Not Pretty Enough”, “Pony”, “We’re All Gonna Die Someday” and “Hollywood”. Her last album, a co-venture with Shane, teamed husband and wife to create the rootsy Appalachian album Rattlin’ Bones that garnered my runner-up choice for Best Album of 2008.
Chambers has written a very eclectic group of 14 songs (one hidden track) that highlight her musical styles individually and collectively. Little Bird has soft ballads with “Somewhere”, “Nullarbor” and ‘The Stupid Things I Do” along with radio friendly pop hooks on “Someone Like Me”, “This Story”, “Invisible Girl”, and the title track. Country and bluegrass shine in songs “Bring Back My Heart”, “Devil On Your Back”, and “Georgia Brown”. A lovely duet number called “Love Like A Hurricane” with Kevin Bennett shows Chambers sweetness while “Down Here On Earth” and “Train Wreck” brings out her rockin’ outlaw style. Kasey received The International Songwriting Competition Grand Prize for her song “Beautiful Mess” in the Folk/Singer-Songwriter category. When I can honestly say there is not a bad track on an album, it is indeed one to savior.
Unfortunately, Chambers’ autobiography titled A Little Bird Told Me and corresponding album called Storybook have not been released in the US but are available through her website. Kasey performs some of her favorites on this CD collection of songwriters she adores including numbers by Lucinda Williams, Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, and Suzanne Vega. Oh, did I mention she is expecting any day now? I think 2011 will be her year.