The Captain

Country music is a bit like eating crisps in bed. Everybody does it, everybody likes it, but Jesus you never admit it. You're going to stop reading now, because you don't like country music, but actually, you do. Hank Williams, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash are really soul singers, and the image of the country diva, all blonde-wig-and-huge bosoms has largely been quashed with the crossover success of acts like the Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain.

Kasey Chambers hails from Nullabor in Australia, a desolate kip of a place, like Leitrim except with sun and sand, and I suppose that rightly qualifies her to sing about booze, cars and broken hearts.

Her voice bears no trace of her Aussie roots, since like Dutch singer Ilse DeLange, if you're gonna sing country you gotta do it it a trailer-trash accent, but the gal can sing, and she can pen a mean tune. On 'The Captain' she mourns that she's 'not as pretty as she was', but judging by the cover photo I find that very difficult to believe. On 'The Hard Way' she proves that she's a master of the men-are-bastards-but-we-love-'em-anyway country staple, and she's positively Garth Brooksian on 'Last Hard Bible'. If her record company are willing to spend the money, we could be looking at The Next Big Thang. An Australian country gal, whoodathunkit?