Kasey Chambers Captain CD

In "Southern Kind of Life," a song on her debut album, The Captain, Kasey Chambers convincingly describes a rural Southern upbringing -- poverty stricken and Bible dominated -- and since she performs in a style associated with the Appalachians as developed into commercial country music, it's easy to assume she's singing about the American South. But she isn't; she's singing about the Nullarbor Plain in south-central Australia, where she grew up, apparently listening to a lot of country records. The result is a style that will remind some listeners of Dolly Parton and others of Lucinda Williams, as Chambers, backed by her father and produced by her brother, both of them members of the family's Dead Ringer Band, sings in a breathy voice that breaks expressively. Her tunes tend to be either "I am" songs of self-description like "Southern Kind of Life" and "Cry Like a Baby," accounts of romantic difficulties, or celebrations of life on the road. Though she has a gift for wordplay that favors internal rhyme, her imagery can be trite ("You got the car and I got the break"), and her compositions are less interesting in themselves than in the performances she gives them. Like many young artists, she is still a compendium of her influences rather than a distinct figure unto herself, but The Captain is a sincere effort steeped in the kind of country/folk/rock style that made Lucinda Williams a critical success in the late '90s, and it is likely to attract similar attention. ~ William Ruhlmann

Recorded at The Beach House, Norfolk Island, South Pacific; Beach House, Avoca Beach, New South Wales; Dogtown Studios, Nashville, Tennessee.

Personnel includes: Kasey Chambers (vocals); Nash Chambers (acoustic guitar, bass, background vocals); Rod McCormack (acoustic guitar, background vocals); Jeff McCormack (acoustic guitar, bass); Bill Chambers (electric guitar, dobro, background vocals); Mark Punch (electric guitar); Mick Albeck (fiddle); BJ Barker (drums); Julie Miller (background vocals).

Rolling Stone (1/4/01, p.106) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2000 - "...The girlish honey [she] pours into songs makes her seem younger than her 23 years, like Dolly Parton in high school..."
CMJ (12/00, p.23) - "...Steeped in Texan and Appalachian roots....Delivering honest sentiments....this Australian could strike gold in the Nashville games..."
Dirty Linen (4-5/01, p.74) - "...A testimony to twang....Chambers' voice, which is a cross between June Carter and Joan Baez, never gets in the way of her songwriting..."