It's coming on 2012, and all around us, bloggers tout their 2011 taste, jostling to be the best and first match for your own preferences, inviting debate over position in the ranks. And so, as we do every year as the calendar comes to a close, we struggle with the conceit of The Year In Review, surveying a year's worth of posts, writing a never-ending series of half-hearted drafts, flinching every time we approach the task, yet feeling guilt every time we put it down. My reluctance to pass judgement isn't a cop-out. [...]
I know the name of course, but in truth my knowledge of the man's music is shamefully limited to a few collaborative recordings with fellow Australian artists and his 2007 album Stolen Apples , thanks to Reviewshine I have had a chance to listen to a handpicked 40 song collection of his work in the form of a greatest hits release that's now out in the US and available as a two-CD set for $14 (or $ 10 for the digital version). In the business for over 30 years, according to Wiki Kelly has released [...]
2011 is the 25th anniversary of Steve Earle's Guitar Town , so I guess it's also the 25th anniversary of my being able to stomach country music. Prior to that, it was classic rock, punk rock, power pop and AM radio that filled my listening hours. Guitar Town is not only one of rock and roll's great debut albums, it was also a gateway drug to Waylon, Merle, Willie, Gram and a thousand others. Earle has quite the career since - Grammy winner, drug addict, actor, divorce attorney's dream, novelist, activist, absentee father, record producer, [...]
Understated Aussie-based blog Timber & Steel may well be my new favorite folk/americana blog, bar none. The mix of undersung local Australian acts and international acoustic and nu-folk - aka "folk music that falls through the cracks between the trad and indie scenes" - is impeccable, the content is always fresh and often first to hit the web, and the short blurbs which typify the entries are generally spot on, making for an environment that enriches the soul and the ears. As they rightly note, native daughter Kasey Chambers ' brand new [...]
Chambers wears her heart on her sleeve, even when she knows it will come back broken. That doesn't mean she's a pushover, just a romantic who chooses to act on her impulses. For those listeners old enough to remember those classic Nanci Griffith albums from the '80s (Once in a Very Blue Moon, Last of the True Believers, Little Love Affairs), the latest Kasey Chambers release will serve as a welcome return to that thrilling country-folk-pop-rock sound of yesterday. On songs such as "Someone Like Me" and "Beautiful Mess", Chambers' sweet vocals and earnest declarations of love recall the [...]
Kasey Chambers has certainly been an artist on the go as of late. Until earlier this week, that is. On Wednesday afternoon, while on tour with her family in tow, the Australian star's bus was o... Continue reading "Kasey Chambers On The Differences Between America and Australia, Boobs and Boots" >
Kasey Chambers - Award-winning, multi-platinum-selling Australian alt-country singer/ songwriter returns with the belated U.S. release of her first album of solo material since '06's Carnival... Patty Griffin and Missy Higgins guest...2002 album Barricade and Brick Walls sold 7x platinum Down Under on the strength of the #1 single: "Not Pretty Enough... new album, released last fall internationally, entered the Aussie charts at #3... // Release : Little Bird (July 12, Sugarhill) // Sounds like : Chambers' girlish voice, an acquired taste over the years, has mellowed and matured while her [...]
On Monday, I wrote about the new album that pays tribute to Tom T. Hall's Songs of Fox Hollow record. Here's a behind the scenes video from the recording of the project. Notice how much fun everyone involved with it seems to be having. Today is also the birthday of Australian artist Kasey Chambers. She's been known to sing a few kids songs in her day as well. Here she is with her dad, Bill Chambers. And one more of Kasey with [...]
Heartless Bastards at APW 09 (07/31/09) Photo : Paul Crispin Quitoriano ( more ) Jul 8 2010 Kasey Chambers Bowery Ballroom New York, NY 08:00 PM Buy Tickets presale ends: Fri, 06/03/11 11:00 AM [...]
Australian country singer/songwriter Kasey Chambers has taken out the Grand Prize for the latest International Songwriting Competition. Kasey competed with over 15,000 other songwriters from 115 countries and won a song she wrote for her two sons, titled Beautiful Mess . The competition judges included Rihanna, Robert Smith (of The Cure ), Tom Waits, Ben Harper, Robbie Williams and Kings Of Leon , among others. It was the first time Chambers had entered the global competition. She also [...]
It's Spring, and that means rebirth: when the earth reemerges from the earth, covered in last year's leaves. When the morning is filled with brave still-chilled birds, proffering a soundtrack for our triumphant return. It's also school vacation, and that means our annual trip down to North Carolina's Outer Banks, where we join up with family members more typically spread far and wide across the country, enough to spill into two adjacent houses. In past years, as with most of our excursions to various and sundry parts of the world, [...]
Lucinda Williams is surely better known - or at least more easily recognized - for her ragged heartbroken delivery and emotional way with a guitar than her songbook per se. But as we noted back in May of 2009, when we featured her interpretations of other peoples' songs , it wasn't always the case: her first Grammy win was as a songwriter, for Mary Chapin Carpenter's 1992 performance of Passionate Kisses . In many ways, of course, Williams' is an unusual path towards stardom: though her 1979 debut [...]
#9 - Halcyon Times by Jason & The Scorchers If People. Places. Things. by Drunk on Crutches was my favorite surprise of 2010, then Halcyon Times by Jason & The Scorchers may have been my most anticipated album of the year. You see, prior to this release, it had been 14 years since an album carried the Scorchers' name. Front man Jason Ringenberg had remained active with his solo career and Farmer Jason persona, but most people thought this hugely influential band [...]
It's pretty quiet here, just after noon on a rare sickday at home. The kids are at school, as they should be; the wife is off with a friend, doing some last minute shopping for Friday's opening night. One of the cats - I can never tell them apart - curls up next to me on the couch; the dog rests on the chair opposite, her eyes closed, her breathing gentle in sleep. And though the phone rings occasionally, startling in the overwhelming silence, I've turned off the music, the better to hear the rare [...]
Here's a set recorded at Mountain Stage in November 2007 by Kasey Chambers , the set included the title tracks from my two favourite Kasey solo releases The Captain and Barricades and Brickwalls amongst the five recorded. Kasey has a new album out Little Bird, not got a copy of this yet but the title track I've listened to on-line and I wasn't that impressed to be honest, but I'll reserve judgement unti l I've listened to the full album, was hoping for something along the lines of Rattlin' Bones recorded with husband Shane Nicholson [...]
Here's a set recorded at Mountain Stage in November 2007 by Kasey Chambers , the set included the title tracks from my two favourite Kasey solo releases The Captain and Barricades and Brickwalls amongst the five recorded. Kasey has a new album out Little Bird, not got a copy of this yet but the title track I've listened to on-line and I wasn't that impressed to be honest, but I'll reserve judgement unti l I've listened to the full album, was hoping for something along the lines of Rattlin' Bones recorded with husband Shane Nicholson [...]
Kasey Chambers: Not Pretty Enough [ purchase ] I've told this story a hundred times over. I've told it on my own site more than once. I even got the chance to tell Kasey Chambers this story in person backstage at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville in August of last year. Still... for this week... for this theme... I feel the need to tell it again. It's not just the story of how I discovered Australian songbird Kasey Chambers, it's also the story of [...]
Kasey Chambers has a new CD out... in Australia. Little Bird was released on Friday, but don't look for it in The States any time soon. As she's done with her previous albums, Chambers first releases her music in Australia so she can focus on tours and promotion in her homeland. Then, months later, she moves her focus to the U.S. The difference this time is that, while it's not available physically in stores, Little Bird [...]
It's Tuesday, which means it's new release day, and once again we've got a bunch of new music to share with you. There are a few on the list this week that I'm really looking forward to hearing and possibly reviewing for the site… as always, if you like what you hear, stop by your local record store or your favorite online music shop, and support the artists we've featured below. Writing her second album, Kaleidoscope Heart, was not an easy task for Sara Bareilles. After spending three years on the road in support of her first [...]
Kasey Chambers has announced the forthcoming release of her first solo album in four years. The album, titled 'Little Bird' will be released through Liberation Music. Watch 'Little Bird' above, the first taste of Kasey's fifth solo album, also called Little Bird , which will be released in September. The 14 tracks were recorded with her band which Kasey dubs The Millionaires ; John Watson [...]
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