CONCERT: As I put the phone down from chatting to a lovely old man about his stamp collection, the red light of a missed call blinks on.
“Hi Shanelle, it’s Kasey Chambers here, I’m a little early for our chat, I’ll try again in a few minutes,” comes the cheery message.
It’s hard to match the unassuming, girl-next-door tone with the ARIA award-winning country music legend I had been excitedly-but-nervously looking forward to interviewing all morning.
But that’s Chambers in a nutshell – no matter how many awards she takes home or albums she celebrates, she’s still the laid-back South Australian who did the hard yards travelling the country with her family, playing to empty barstools and sleeping in vans.
Chambers was scheduled to bring her Bittersweet album tour to the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre this year, but was forced to postpone until February due to a medical condition.
“The doctor said no more touring this year – I’ve got two small nodules on my vocal chords, which just meant I needed to give them some rest,” she explained.
“I was worried I might need surgery but thankfully I just have to rest and actually do some warming up before performing, which I’m terrible at – I’m hopeless when it comes to being professional.”
Chambers released her new album on August 29, which I informed her was my birthday and she assured me she had planned it that way.
Bittersweet marks a milestone as her 10th studio album, which she said “sounded about right” but there had been plenty of other records along the way that hadn’t been counted.
“I haven’t really done much else with my life,” she laughed.
“It does feel like a long time but I find new excitement in it all the time, I’m never just going through the motions.
“There are days and weeks where you wake up and feel like you’re a bit sick of it, but you just take a break – I’m lucky because my brother is my manager, and his sister comes first ahead of his artist.”
The title track is a hauntingly beautiful story about love lost, combining Chambers with the formidable talents of Powderfinger lead singer Bernard Fanning in a musical match made in heaven.
“I have worked with Bernard on and off over the years, he has always been so amazing,” she said.
“What I love is that he is so real, there is no bulls**t, he is who he is and is so passionate about what he does.
I’m not interested in just getting up there and pushing the latest album – The Captain is still my favourite song to perform, I find new joy in it each time and it always feels like home.
- Kasey Chambers
“Aside from singing on the title track, he plays a whole lot of instruments throughout the album, there’s a whole lot of Bernard in this one.”
She mentions that she has just come from the announcement of nominations for the Golden Guitar awards and the album is up for six awards.
Chambers’ Bunbury fans can expect a well-rounded show when she arrives in February, as she loves to go back through all the old favourites that have got her where she is today.
“I’m not interested in just getting up there and pushing the latest album – The Captain is still my favourite song to perform, I find new joy in it each time and it always feels like home.”
Kasey Chambers will bring her Bittersweet tour to the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on February 6.
Go to bunburyentertainment.com to lock in your tickets.
- By Shanelle Miller.
