By NOEL MURPHY
EVER wonder why music can be fun, moving, emotional, driving, soaring? Well, go see Kasey Chambers playing — or maybe just listen to her.
The great Aussie songstress is like a breath of fresh air when it comes to musical categorisations – those irksome pigeonholes where people like shoving musicians.
Chambers can be sweet or twangy, down-home country, sure, but she can mix it with hard grunge rock too or morph across to swamp blues bordering on bayou voodoo strains – depending on how the mood takes her.
That’s the thing with country music a lot of non-country followers don’t realise. Its diversity ranges from Bob Willis, Hank Williams, George Jones and the Grand Old Opry to Steve Earle, the Del McCoury boys, Dixie Chicks and Rednex.
Country is not just old time, it’s also jazz, bluegrass, rock and techno.
“I try not to put boundaries on what I write,” says Chambers.
“I don’t say I’m going to write or make a country song, it’s more just what pops out.
“Whether it’s swamp, grunge or country, I don’t over-think too much the elements of what I do. I suppose it will always sounds relatively country, it’s going to because of my voice and all that but there don’t have to be boundaries.
“I listen to a bit of everything — lots of what my kids listen to, like Ed Sheeran. We all listen to him, and he’s so lovely, some days it’s Eminem, then the old Bob Dylan records, Merle Haggard – there’s no rhyme or reason, I guess that’s why my music is so different.
“I like a bit of all that traditional stuff and I love stuff that’s pushing the boundaries.”
Chambers likes insinuating the odd country yodel into her songs too, well maybe more than just the odd one.
“Yeah, yodelling, bring it back,” she laughs.
“I’ve always got a yodel or two in every song. I kind of sneak it in so they’re not sure whether they heard it or not, they don’t know.”
Chambers says juggling three kids makes music tricky but strong family support – dad Bill’s in the band, her mum joins the tours and her brother’s her manager – means she can take the billy lids on the road and fashion tours around them. It’s also pretty much how music’s been much of her life, anyway.
Struggles that Chambers has encountered along her career are these instructional more than scars.
“The music’s in my DNAS but I certainly go through stages where I want to get away from music,” she says.
“It’s important to get away, to listen to that, especially when it’s a job. When it feels more like a job than a passion, take a break. Now I recognise that earlier than I did in the past — I take a break, then I miss it.”
Nice problem to be able to address successfully when you’re working muso in demand everywhere around the country. Still, Chambers knows full well the joy of writing, singing and performing – as she says, “whether it’s on stage to a sold-out crowd or playing guitar and singing harmonies with my dad in the little café where he jams with his band”.
Kasey Chambers will play Geelong’s Costa Hall on Thursday 30 April. Tickets GPAC.
