Saturday 5th June 2010
KASEY CHAMBERS & SHANE NICHOLSON Australian Tour
KATOOMBA RSL CLUB
86 Lurline St, Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia
The daughter of a professional foxhunter, fisherman and part-time musician, Kasey Chambers grew up in a small fishing village in South Australia and the vast expanses of the desolate Nullarbor Plain. Kasey’s career started when she began singing with her family in the ‘Dead Ringer Band’ which included dad Bill, mother, Diane and brother Nash and saw them touring all over Australia by the time she was a teenager.
It wasn’t until she began her solo career that Kasey’s path would lead her to become an Australian household name and receive accolades from around the world. Her last 4 albums have reached #1 and all 5 albums achieving platinum or multi-platinum sales.
After signing with record company EMI, Kasey’s debut solo album, ‘The Captain’ was released in 1999 and won the ARIA for ‘Best Country Release’. This was followed up by ‘Best Female Artist’ at the 2000 ARIA Awards, achieving 3 x platinum sales in Australia and reached the Top 50 of the US Billboard Country Album Charts.
Most of 2000 & 2001 was spent touring the US & Australia, supporting some of her most major musical influences including Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris. Kasey achieved further international exposure when her song ‘The Captain’ was played in an episode of the smash hit series, The Sopranos. ‘The Captain’ remains to this day one of Kasey’s favourite songs and she still performs it at every show.
Back in the studio Kasey was busy working again with brother and producer Nash on her follow up album. ‘Barricades & Brickwalls’ was released in 2001 went to the #1 position on the ARIA Charts with the lead single ‘Not Pretty Enough’ doing the same. Kasey became the only Australian country music artist to have a #1 Single and #1 Album on the ARIA Charts simultaneously. Barricades & Brickwalls went on to achieve sales exceeding 7 x platinum.
It was definitely Kasey’s year at the Aria awards in 2002 with her scooping up awards for ‘Best Album’, ‘Best Country Album’ and ‘Best Female Artist’. She also then won the highly coveted APRA ‘Songwriter of the Year’ award.
Momentum was also building in the US, which saw Kasey appear on late night television’s institutions, The David Letterman Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Nights with Conan O’Brien.
It was during this time that Kasey was personally invited by country music’s queen, Dolly Parton to appear on a tribute album to herself, ‘Just Because I Am A Woman’. Kasey’s contribution was an incredibly soulful rendition of ‘Little Sparrow’ and saw her appear alongside an international stellar cast including Melissa Etheridge, Norah Jones, Sinead O’Connor, Alison Krauss and one of Kasey’s all time major musical influences, Emmylou Harris.
2002 also saw Kasey being invited to record Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colours” as the Official song for the Rugby World Cup with it reaching Gold sales and Top 10 on the ARIA Singles Charts.
But while she was enjoying success and at the top of her game, as far as Kasey was concerned, this all paled in significance to when she gave birth to her first son Talon on 22 of May.
Motherhood then brought a new direction to Kasey’s songwriting and this was evident in her third studio album, ‘Wayward Angel’. The album was released in 2004 and went on to achieve sales of 3 x platinum. With a more mature sound, Wayward Angel was a perfect summation of her career thus far.
In 2006, Kasey surprised all her fans and critics with the release of “Carnival”. Admitting that she was in a different state of mind when recording Carnival, Kasey stepped out of her self-imposed musical boundaries and explored something new. Two new players joined the studio band this time: Jim Moginie from Midnight Oil on keyboards and electric guitar: and drummer Michael Barker from The John Butler Trio. This injection of new sound saw Kasey break from her comfort zone and approach songwriting in a different fashion.
Carnival also saw collaborations with some Australian musical heavyweights on tracks such as “I Got You”, with You-Am-I lead singer, Tim Rogers and “Hard Road”, featuring the distinct voice of Powderfinger front man, Bernard Fanning.
The album went on to reach the ARIA #1 position and platinum sales.
Shane Nicholson‘s first involvement with the Chambers family came when he teamed with up with Nash to record his debut solo album “It’s a Movie”. The Brisbane singer/songwriter and Kasey soon became good mates and admirers of each other’s work and 2005 saw this friendship become more serious with a casual wedding in their backyard.
The husband and wife started touring and performing together, playing a series of acoustic shows with Kasey’s dad Bill, and also in their ‘cover band’ “The Lost Dogs” which had a year-long residency at their local watering hole in Avoca Beach NSW.
It was during this time that the couple decided their blend of voices, songwriting and individual approaches to music would be best moulded together in a joint collaboration. As they were working together for this forthcoming album, they also welcomed the arrival of their first child together, Arlo Ray Nicholson.
In late December 2007 Shane, Kasey, Nash (with most of the Chambers clan in tow) went into lockdown at Jimmy Barnes’ Sydney studio to create ‘Rattlin Bones’, an album that has been heralded by critics as a landmark album in Australian music and received high accolades from US radio and press.
From the haunting title track to the smooth groove of ‘Jackson Hole’ and the quick, punchy bluegrass tune ‘Devil’s Inside My Head’, the result is a premium grade, alternate country/roots album.
Rattlin’ Bones also picked up the 2008 Aria award for Best Country Album, exceeded platinum sales and also received a whopping 5 Golden Guitar Awards at Tamworth including, ‘Album of the Year’, APRA ‘Song of the Year’ and ‘Single of the Year’.
Throughout her career Kasey has earned the respect of some musical giants such as Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yokham, Ben Harper and author/filmmaker Michael Moore to name a few.
Always moving forward, Kasey is currently working on the next project “Kasey Chambers, Poppa Bill & The Little Hillbillies”. This includes her first children’s book and joint effort Album with her Dad Bill, which also sees the debut of a new generation of singer/songwriters. The Little Hillbillies are made up of Kasey’s sons Talon and Arlo, Bill’s further additions, Jake and Tyler, Nash’s tribe of 3, Eden, Skye and Béla and best friend Worm’s son Townes.
Kasey Chambers, Poppa Bill & The Little Hillbillies album and children’s book will be released on Nov 6th through Liberation.
Doors Open 8pm. Show Starts 8:30pm.
Tickets $45