If you need an excuse for including her, well, here are a few that will work:Both Australia and America start with A and end with a.What we now call the modern country of Australia began as a British penal colony. Most white Americans were probably running from something when they left Europe and might very well have ended up in Australia themselves, had they been caught. European ancestry has been modified in what I think is a positive way from living with and or at least alongside different cultures in both our new homes. There probably are more similarities that haven’t come to mind. Hell, just listen to one of her CD’s. It’s Americana. Or Australiana. Whatever. It’s original and it’s good.Kasey was raised in an unusual family, even by Australian standards. Her parents were nomads and spent time wandering across the outback where radio signals are few and far between—TV and video games, non-existent. They made their living doing what we in Texas call varmit hunting each winter of Kasey’s first ten years. In addition to the day job, they were musicians, and listened almost exclusively to what we now call Americana music—people like Townes Van Zandt, Graham Parsons, the Carter family, Emmylou Harris and the like. Kasey began emulating those sounds at an early age. When you put oranges into a juicer, orange juice is to be expected from the other end.The family tried town life for a few years in Kasey’s early teens but it didn’t take. Kasey dropped out of school at fourteen and the family resumed their nomadic existence, only now they made their living singing and recording albums as The Dead Ringer Band. They wrote some of their own material and also covered songs by Steve Earle, Jimmie Rogers, Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Nanci Griffith, Fred Eaglesmith, Lucinda Williams and more. The band stayed together for a little over ten years. Toward the end of the band’s existence, it became evident that Kasey was gifted way beyond ordinary. Kasey’s parents split; the band disintegrated.Kasey kept singing and eventually the various family members rejoined professionally, not as a family, but to back her budding career as a solo artist. John Lomax III, an American talent agent that previously handled Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt’s careers took notice. The rest is history.I’ve looked extensively and found few female performers her age that compare. Some write a good song or two and fill the rest of a cd with mediocre tunes; others have a nice voice and do well covering someone else’s work. Most all that succeed are attractive. Kasey has written three albums full of excellent material from beginning to end and also has the voice to deliver them. She’s still in her twenties and has several godawful piercings to prove it; one juts straight out from her lower lip. (She looks good in spite of this. It’s almost unfair to the competition.)Kasey attracted attention here in the United States with her first CD, The Captain, in the year 2000 and sold around 100,000 copies. She released Barricades and Brick Walls, my personal favorite, in 2002. She took off time to have a child and then in 2004, she released Wayward Angel. All three are good.When I listen to Kasey, I find it hard to believe these are the thoughts and words of such a young person. The voice is youthful, the words poetic. But the lyrics express thoughts I’m unaccustomed to hearing from a person her age. Perhaps all those nights under the stars of an Australian sky did more to develop her mind and spirit than those that spend lives glued to the spot in front of a TV set or a computer. Or maybe it was the hands-on raising her parents provided. Could have been the rabbit, turkey and kangaroo meat she ate or the spirits of all those foxes she sent to the other side. Whatever the case—it’s quite unusual.Kasey pours emotion into her songs and dares to address matters most women run from. Truth is not always pretty or politically correct—sometimes it borders on being illegal; sometimes it brings joy; sometimes we’re left with nothing but tears. There always are more questions than answers. And the hard questions are difficult to ask.I hear evidence of a strong supporting cast in Kasey’s work. Her brother Nash produces her CD’s. The music sounds like what you’d expect in American country and folk circles. I suspect her father is no less an influence on her than Lloyd Maines might be to his daughter Natalie. I know her mother is still involved as well. You don’t get this good this early without help.Kasey Chambers is one of the best young acts in the business. Here’s her website: http://www.kaseychambers.com. (Note: I found some of Kasey’s history in a book called The Best of No Depression: Writing about American Music. Geoffrey Himes penned Kasey’s chapter. His piece gives a much more detailed picture of Kasey than I have presented here. The book,  published by the University of Texas Press, is well worth the time.)——————–About the Author – Don Henry Ford, Jr.When Don’s not writing books he lends out his talent to Americana Roots to put together great articles like this. If you’ve enjoyed what you read, then pick up Don’s latest book Contrabando: Confessions of a Drug Smuggling Cowboy at your local bookstore or online at Cinco Puntos Press.