Kasey Chambers; "Barricades and Brickwalls"
In 1999 Kasey Chambers came out with her first recording, "The Captain". Reviews were quite good so I bought it based on two things. First that Stereophile liked it and secondly that Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris liked her, and often went to see her perform. Her background is with a country influence but she is from Australia so she is clearly not a country singer. She is a range of pop, rock, acoustic, country and maybe some Australian folk(?) She tends towards the Lucinda/ Emmylou vocal style, but I've grown to believe she's more diverse with greater emotional range than the other two. Now add in the girlish voice of say Rickie Lee Jones and I think it's closing in on Kasey.
Her latest offering, "Barricades and Brickwalls" is a deeper look into Kasey as she exposes her emotions regarding love, loss and life. If you've never heard her before, I would recommend you listen to #2, "Not Pretty Enough" followed by #6 Nullarbor Song", #7 "Million Tears" then go back to #1 and play the disk straight through. This will allow you to get the scope of Kasey without any misconceptions about what is coming. To start with the band, which is quite good, consists of Kasey, song writer, vocals and acoustic guitar ( listed on some tracks.) She has a drummer, bass, percussion and two or more electric and/or acoustic guitars as a base band. There are also tracks that may include cello, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, dobra, lap steel guitar or slide guitar. She has guest vocal appearances by Camille Te Nahu, Lucinda Williams, Buddy Miller, and Paul Kelly. It's impressive when such a young singer is able to pull together such talent.
Now it's Kasey's voice that for me is the essence of raw emotion. It seems as if every recording is being played for the first time with the emotion she is conveying still fresh. I so admire vocalists who are able to express there inner feelings in such a real and convincing way. Kasey uses her throat to sing with. Her voice is an ever changing palate of sound using a harsh gravelly even scratchy basis. When she sings in her lower throat she includes her upper chest giving depth and tonality. The recording quality is good enough that you can see a size difference in her voice from throat to chest. The next score she will shift to the upper throat along with using the depth of her mouth. This makes for a much airier, stronger and more open sound. She may then go back to mid throat, small and raspy. At the same time she may change from an open load voice all the way down to a whisper. It's her whisper that she is masterful at controlling. Such a small sound with such great emotion attached. At times I simply want to reach out and hold her, help to ease her pain, it's so real, so alive. As I mentioned above she also has some Rickie Lee Jones, in this I mean she has a childish innocence about her voice. I think it's not as much that as her accent. She adds a special something to the English language that for me is most irritable. I highly recommend both of her disks, she right now is my favorite female vocalist.
One point, my copy of "Barricades and Brickwalls" is on the EMI Music Australia label. I bought it as an import in hopes of a better quality recording than that of "The Captain" on Asylum Records (domestic). I've now confirmed my suspicions, a friend of mine bought his copy of "B&B" at Best Buy on a domestic label, (and different cover design), it sounds much worse. It's edgier, brighter with less depth and emotion.
One final think, about a minute or more after the final 15th track is an unlisted hidden song. If you don't feel Kasey's emotion after this song you are out of touch with your emotions.
