Folk music has been stylish since the '60s as an embodiment of the hippie values of naturalism and activism. Then, the field was dominated by male artists such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and James Taylor, with only a few females like Joan Baez and Sandy Denny gaining fame.
Our generation prefers a folk market dominated by female vocalists. In recent years, artists like Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco and Alison Krauss have gotten attention for their distinct brands of folk and bluegrass. Singer/songwriter Kasey Chambers represents the latest addition to this growing list of female folk artists.
Chambers, 23, decided to become a folk artist at the age of 12, after seeing Lucinda Williams perform in concert. Yet one obstacle stood between Chambers and her dream: she comes from Australia, a land that boasts relatively few folk and bluegrass musicians. Chambers easily overcame this hindrance, finding immediate success in the United States with her 2000 album "The Captain." The television show "The Sopranos" even made the album's title track its theme song. After promoting "The Captain" in the States and playing to sold-out audiences, Chambers had escaped the confine of the Australian outback to find international success.
Chambers' second album, "Barricades & Brickwalls," represents a continuance of the elements that made "The Captain" successful. The opening title track features a distorted slide guitar with Chambers' high-pitched voice an octave above it. Displaying her debt to the blues-rock of the '60s, the song resembles material on Johnny Winter's "The Progressive Blues Experiment," although Chambers' voice is more melodic than Winter's.
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The album's second track, "Not Pretty Enough," undoubtedly is the best song on the album, brandishing Chambers' remarkable skills as a lyricist. The song's speaker faces the fact that she's not pretty enough to win the attention of someone she is attracted to. Addressing this someone, she points out her charming personality and superb devotion, although she realizes that these features often come second to looks. The song favors DiFranco's "Not A Pretty Girl," replacing DiFranco's vehemence with a candid assessment of sex appeal.
"On a Bad Day" features Chambers' childhood idol, Lucinda Williams, on backup vocals in the chorus. Williams' scabrous voice compliments Chambers' whiny vocals well, adding a little reverberation to Chambers' trenchant voice. Unfortunately, Williams' vocal track is so soft that her well-known voice becomes anonymous.
While Chambers gives a solid performance on "Barricades," the album still has a few blemishes that keep it from surpassing "The Captain." Alt-country tune "Crossfire" features the band The Living Ends, is excessively twangy and fails to compliment the album's other material. The final track, "I Still Pray," is the album's worst song, over eleven minutes long and extravagantly slow. The album would be grossly improved if these tracks had been cut. Still, despite its minor shortcomings, "Barricades" is a commendable album that should further Chambers' fame.
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