Kasey Chambers

When I was younger, in the late nineties, I heard Kasey Chambers sing "Not Pretty Enough" and fell in love.  I forgot.  This is where it all started:

I spent my entire childhood the awkward fat kid with glasses.  No one liked me.  I compensated with my personality that is remarkably demonstrative and at times demanding.  I'll also give the shirt on my back to someone who displays the need, until I feel like a doormat.  Perhaps that defines me as a socialist?  And even then I'll let it fester a bit.  I give my platelets and my time to the blood center.  I give my time to the democrats because I believe President Obama might, just might, make this world a better place, in spite of the demonstrations made by the Tea Party. He asks a lot, but in return I feel like I'm worthy of attention and favor simply because I have demonstrated a good faith attempt to make the world a better place.

My friend and I were discussing Neko Case, another favorite and I was reminded again of Kasey.  I'm not sure why.  She's got an Outlaw Country sound because she's apparently from the backwoods of Australia.  Considering I'm a Texas girl I can relate.  I may be from Dallas and living in Austin, but I've driven through vast open country.  She doesn't have Neko's sophistication, but she does have her independent spirit.  The reviews are that none of her songs are "throw aways" and none of them pander to the lowest common denominator audience.  She's in a class of other free spirits such as Ani DiFranco and Regina Spektor.

Now I've come across her again.  Her lyrics have a richness that cannot be duplicated.  It has been said she has a whiny voice and reeks of false entitlement, but I don't see it.  Then I heard Runaway Train:

I feel in her spirit the parts of my youth that I miss:

I'll drive faster, you hold tighter

I'll get wild, you get wilder

I'll make thunder, you make rain

We'll go down to the runaway train

I've felt her sadness.  I see in her pieces of me.  It's always so wonderful to find a musician who helps you find the pieces of you that you never defined but knew all along you had.

When it's quiet out here 100 miles away

you can hear the train on the line

the whistle blows just to break the silence

I wave just to break the time.

I close my eyes

I think of running water

I think of running away

But the fire's burned to ashes 

and it's darker than before

But I can see as clear as day

The older I get the more of a Humanist I become.  There is something that binds us all. She has touched the spirit that connects us.  Her voice, poetry and music found my heart and now, hopefully she's found yours as well.