Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson "Wreck & Ruin"

 

If you know me personally, you are aware of my twelve-year love affair with Kasey Chambers.  When "The Captain" came out at the beginning of the century, I was smitten.  She was pitched to the country market domestically, but the album wasn't what I would call completely country.  Influenced?  Certainly.  Minor success in the States with her first three albums but massive in her native Australia, selling multi-platinum and winning several ARIA awards.  Her fourth album was enough of a departure from the country-leaning predecessors that it wasn't allowed on the Country charts.  It still debuted at #1. 

Then came the first collaboration with hubby Shane.  Here is that post from back in the early days of my blog.  Real country...bluegrass, even.  Expertly done.  Her next solo was a 4th Q release in 2010 called "Little Bird."  If you read through the post, I had hoped for a US release.  Well, I guess my research was a bit suspect as Sugar Hill did release it a couple of weeks after the overseas bow, and it had roughly the same impact on the charts as any of the others, i.e., not much. 

So now we have the second release by the husband & wife team and if you call yourself a fan of folk or Appalachia music, you need to obtain a copy of W&R.  Here is the title cut...



Two and a half minutes of country bliss.  The basic version of the album contains twelve more tunes like that, clocking in at a brief 34 minutes.  You can download it for $5 and find the CD version for as low as $8.  I purchased the Deluxe Edition with five additional songs and not one of them is inferior to the regular tunes.  Are they worth the extra fiver?  Undoubtedly.  I could not find any of them for you to see/hear here, so enjoy the 2nd single from the album.  You Civil Wars fans should buy this while you wait (patiently?) for new music from them...



If Kasey Chambers decided to make a polka record, I'd buy it...

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12/9   A quick note...  I originally intended to produce this post by essentially referring to a fellow blogger from Australia who, like me, isn't doing this for monetary gain but for the love of sharing great music.  I wanted my domestic readers to get the view of a local, Aussie fan.  I asked for permission to link her post, but due to an unfortunate circumstance I had to quickly leave home for a week without receiving her approval.  I cobbled something together and headed out the door.  Now I have the go-ahead so here it is.  If you are a Country Music fan, I suggest you read more from Sophie's blog than this singular post.  You may expand your horizons...  Jolene:  The Country Music Blog