Rattlin' Bones - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Album Description
2008 collaboration between Chambers, the beloved Australian singer/songwriter and her husband Shane Nicholson. Drawing on both their songwriting talents and unique voices, Rattlin' Bones heralds a return to the Alternative Country roots that first launched Kasey's stellar career. This is Chambers and Nicholson writing and performing heartfelt songs that speak with an undeniable honesty. Whilst giving a sizeable nod to Chambers' Country Music upbringings, Rattlin' Bones equally secures Nicholson's natural fit on the rootsy highway. 14 tracks. EMI. 2008.

Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Loud & brash, tender & broken: A CD that touches every emotion September 17, 2008
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

After a certain age and a certain number of --- oh, let's not call them "failed", let's say "successfully completed" --- relationships, it's inspiring to hear a man and woman singing together. When the couple is married, even more inspiring. For what is a happy marriage if not harmony under pressure? To spend your days and nights singing as a team --- that, friends, is togetherness you can believe in.

I first encountered Kasey Chambers when she released her debut "The Captain". She had a fogcutter of a voice that demanded attention. And she could flatten a note like the best bluegrass singers --- you'd swear she'd left the hollow only to get a bunch of piercings.

In fact, Kasey Chambers is Australian. And that's the least of it --- when she was very young, her father, the musician Bill Chambers, moved his family into a barren zone of that empty continent and spent a decade as a fox hunter. Kasey grew up under a giant sky and an empty landscape; at night, around a campfire, her father led his family in songs straight from the Grand Ole Opry. She might as well have been living in the hollow.

Kasey Chambers is now married to Shane Nicholson, also Australian, and they have a debut of their own. I saw them at a club in New York, with her father as the sidekick, and I can report her voice is still as big as her personality. Brash? Loud? This woman has a personality sharp enough to shave with!

It would be easy to say that Kasey Chambers dominates her husband --- Nicholson is one of those skinny guys with the wispy beard and the porkpie hat --- but he's hardly Desi to her Lucy. If anything, he's the superior musician, and the songs he's co-written with his wife are easily the best she's ever done.

Which is not to say these are goopy love songs. The title song announces that heaven and hell are the CD's dominant images. To what might as well be the steady hammering on an anvil, they sing:

Smoke don't rise
Fuel don't burn
Sun don't shine no more
Late one night, sorrow come round
Scratching at my door
But I cut my hands
And break my back
Draggin' this bag of stones
Till they bury me down, beneath the ground
With the dust and rattlin' bones

And then they're off, trading lines, as dobros, banjos, lap-steel guitars and fiddles work their magic underneath. It's spooky stuff, and when she sings about her "monkey on the wire", the writing takes you very far --- those dark desires are "walking like Jesus with voodoo in their eyes."

Just that loud, just that soft. When the pace slows, Kasey Chambers seems to have invented sadness. Together, Chambers and Nicholson take love as it comes: "Let's hold our breath and give it just one more year." And face the darkest possibility: "Let's hope that what we fear ain't what we've become."

"Rattlin' Bones" hit #1 in Australia. I can understand why. It's not the kind of two-for-one CD we so often get here --- a collection of duets, a star turn. It is, as Chambers says, "an album that sounds like a band with two singers in it."

For once, she understates. This CD is as big and bold as the sky she was raised under, an outrageously fine enterprise that has the rare power, in less than an hour, to break your heart and make you believe in endless love.

5 out of 5 stars

Rattlin' Bones Review May 11, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

My favourite album to date.
Stand outs to me were Monkey On A Wire, One More Year, Jackson Hole, Your Day Will Come and the title track, Rattlin' Bones.

This album, with more references about hell and the devil is surprisingly uplifting.
There's no duets or anyone singing lead while the other sings back up vocals, it just Kasey and Shane singing at their best.
It's bluegrass, white man's gospel, raw-boned country and the blues that leaves you with a gutsy, warm, sometimes swinging, sometimes gloriously sad set of songs meant to be enjoyed.

I would recommend this album and seeing them live to anyone. It's so worth it.

5 out of 5 stars

LOVE IT July 3, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

There's not a bad song on this album - excellent! Emmylou and Graham Parsons-ish. Listen to it for your self

5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic! August 3, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Better than anything we could expect from one of the all time best. Wonderful listening with each time through. As they say, excellent "roots" music that pushes the envelope of today's singer/songwriters.

5 out of 5 stars

Great Aussies give us hope! September 25, 2008
3 out of 14 found this review helpful

As the once mighty U.S.A. goes under - with silly wars they can't win, with economic policies that destroy world economies, with music that gets ever more like McDonald's, along come some Aussies who show us all how Country music can be great!!
Kasey has always been wonderful, both as a singer and songwriter - I have all her earlier music, including those where she was lead singer for The Dead Ringer Band - I often cry when I listen to Wayward Angel - now she has a partner who complements her and helps make a musical and profound CD.

I was anxious that her new partner would somehow "diminish" her performance, and I have heard many "duets" that left me wondering why they bothered. But these 2 got it right. Varied music, great instrumentals, Kasey's unique voice that has such a range of emotions (not for her the one repetitive style), and Shane is a delightful surprise.
I've seen them perform together on Aussie TV - very individual: she is so sharp and full-on, he is more moderate but still "whacky" in a good way. They look as if they do well togtether. Their music certainly confirms that.
I'd love to see them live!

Kasey has saved country music, now can she and the Aussies help with World Peace and Responsible Government? Stand up Kevin Rudd !!!

This is a truly great CD.

Thanks Kasey - you have restored my hope for the future!

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