Kasey chambers biography for kids

Australian rock singer-songwriter and musician (born 1976)

Musical artist

Kasey Chambers (born 4 June 1976) is an Australian country singer-songwriter and musician born in Mount Gambier to musicians Diane and Bill Chambers. Her older brother is musician and producer Nash Chambers. All four were members of family country-music group Dead Ringer Band in Bowral, New South Wales from 1992 to 1998; Chambers launched her solo career thereafter. Five of her twelve studio albums have reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Barricades & Brickwalls (September 2001), Wayward Angel (May 2004), Carnival (August 2006) Rattlin' Bones (April 2008), and Dragonfly (January 2017). In November 2018 she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and has won an additional 14 ARIA Music Awards with nine for Best Country Album. Her autobiography, A Little Bird Told Me..., co-authored with music journalist Jeff Apter, was released in 2011.

Dead Ringer Band

Main article: Dead Ringer Band

Kasey Chambers was born in 1976 in Mount Gambier, South Australia to Diane and Bill Chambers. Her older brother, Nash Chambers, was born in 1974. From July 1976 the Chambers family travelled around the Nullarbor Plain, where the parents hunted foxes and rabbits for pelts during seven or eight months a year, spanning nine years. During the "hot months" (generally from November to March) they returned to Southend, South Australia, where her family owned a fish and chip shop for a time.

From 1986 Bill and Diane returned to performing as a country-music duo while their children attended school in Southend. In the following year their parents added first Chambers and then Nash to their act, which became the Dead Ringer Band – named for the children looking like their parents. Chambers was recorded on vocals fo

Although she may be a household name in Australia, to her kids, Kasey is just mum.

“To be really honest with you, my kids don’t have a famous mum. I’ve tried to use that on them, and it means nothing,” she laughs.

“I don’t live the life of a celebrity, so the kids don’t see that a lot… I haven’t seen it a lot.”

She says they “appreciate” her job though – especially the perks that sometimes comes with it.

“Our family holiday last year was actually to Africa, because I was doing a tour there, so that was cool, being able to take them and show them the animals. I don’t know that we would have gotten to do that if it wasn’t for my job,” she admits.

And as she prepares to embark on a national tour next month, Kasey says being a mum and a touring musician can become a bit of balancing act.

Thankfully, her ex-husband, Shane Nicholson, is also a musician, so he understands the what it entails, and the pair work together to coordinate their schedules.

“I work out touring with my ex, so we’re not on tour at the same time. It’s that balance thing. Sometimes I’ll miss out on things because I’m on tour, but sometimes it’s the other way around. Sometimes I’ll have to not take gigs, too,” she says.

Kasey Chambers (b. 1976) was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia, into a musical family. During her early childhood she spent at least six months of every year living on the Nullarbor Plain, where her parents scratched out a living hunting foxes and rabbits and playing music at country pubs. By the time she was nine, Kasey was regularly joining her parents and older brother Nash on stage. In 1992 the family became full-time musicians. Performing as The Dead Ringer Band, they released three albums between 1995 and 1998, winning 7 Golden Guitars and two ARIA awards. Kasey launched her solo career in 1999 with The Captain, a country album that became an immense crossover success. It went top-ten in Australia and laid the foundation for her later success in the US. At the 2000 ARIAs she edged out the likes of Kylie Minogue in the Best Female Artist category, becoming the first country performer to take out the award. In 2002 her second album Barricades & Brickwalls went quadruple-platinum, and yielded the number 1 single "Not Pretty Enough." In the same year she gave birth to a son, Talon, and took home her second ARIA as Best Female Artist. At the 2004 ARIAs she received that honour for the 3rd time, as well as scoring the Best Country Album award for her latest CD Wayward Angel (2004).

Updated 2018

BIO: CAREER cont’d

A change came in 1998 when Kasey, at the age of 22, travelled overseas on a rites-of-passage voyage of discovery. She came back ready to start her solo career. The resultant album, The Captain (1999) remains one of the most extraordinary and lauded debuts by an Australian artist in any genre. Songs such as the title track, ‘Cry Like a Baby’ and ‘These Pines’ boast a maturity beyond her years and a wealth of Americana-styled musical influences, yet the album has Australia and family at its core, ingredients that have been a staple of Kasey’s song-writing ever since then.

The critics and the public saw The Captain for what it was, a blast of fresh air in the local country scene. Kasey was on her way and picked up her first ARIA Awards, for best country album and best female artist. Greater success was to follow.

Barricades & Brickwalls (2001), Kasey’s second album, broke more ground, winning best album at the 2002 ARIAs and landing her at the top of the pop charts in Australia with the classic single Not Pretty Enough, ironically a song about not fitting into the standard pop mould. Kasey was the first Aussie country artist to have a single and album at No.1 simultaneously. America was also paying attention. The Captain reached the Billboard top 50 not long before Barricades & Brickwalls was released and Kasey built a fan base across the US touring on her own and with US artists such as Lucinda Williams and Robert Earl Keen. She has maintained a loyal following in the US and tours there regularly.

The hits kept coming throughout the 2000s. In between albums Kasey became a mum for the first time with the birth of her son Talon. The third album, Wayward Angel (2004) was another monster success, going straight to No.1 in Australia and producing a string of singles including Pony, Saturated and Hollywood. The album, produced by her brother Nash, won best country album at the ARIAs in 2004 a