CD’s I’m Diggin’ Right Now: Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson – Rattlin’ Bones

Sometimes I just want to get the word out about a CD that’s really doin’ it for me at the moment, maybe it’s a few discs even. This will be an occasionally reoccurring feature, and it’ll likely look like something similar to this post or perhaps even this post. I won’t get too totally in-depth, but hopefully let you know enough about the disc, so that you will want to go out and get it yo’ darn self. Also, the disc or discs may not be all that new, and will be from a wide array of genre’s (which shouldn’t surprise anyone that has read the Knob for any length of time). Let’s get rollin’, shall we?

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson - Rattlin’ Bones (Sugar Hill)

It has been months, maybe a year or so since my car’s CD player has been dominated in such a manner.  This is a masterful collection of predominantly acoustic numbers that showcases not only Chambers’ angelic instrument of a voice, but also her hubby’s warm and even-keel vocal. This album from the Australian pair of lovebirds would make a perfect companion piece to the O’ Brother, Where Art Thou Soundtrack, as it clearly takes the listener on an Americana-Roots tour of Bluegrass (“Once in a While” & almost the entire rest of the album), Folk (“One More Year”), Old School Country (“Sweetest Waste of Time”) and what I guess I will call Goth-Folkgrass (“Rattlin’ Bones”, “The Devil’s Inside My Head” & “Jackson Hole”).  In fact, the track, “Jackson Hole”, seems almost out of place as it employs drum-machine beats and voice manipulation.  I felt like it was the long-lost track from Steve Earle’s Washington Square Serenade.  Great variety of subject, style and tempo along with amazing vocals, and tracks that are accessible without having to “dumb it down”, Rattlin’ Bones will easily have a spot on my “Desert Island List”.

Also, as you can almost always count-on, Chip has a good write up over at AWT & Twangville.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpVcOodfGKE]