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From her childhood in the Australian outback to the heights of her chart-topping international success as a singer-songwriter, Kasey Chambers has trusted her gut, stuck to her values and learned some hard truths, always while trying to live by the best advice she’s ever received: just don’t be a d**khead.

With under two weeks until the release of Kasey’s book, make sure to check if Kasey is headed to your town for an in depth look at Just Don’t Be A D**khead

Click here to find tickets for your city!

ARIA Hall-of-Famer and revered multi-platinum singer songwriter Kasey Chambers has unveiled an exciting suite of forthcoming new material – kicking off with the announcement of her book Just Don’t Be A Dickhead (Hardie Grant Books), the material informing and inspiring her new album Backbone.

Kasey said today, “I’ve just finished writing a book! I am beyond excited to be releasing it along with a brand-new album. 

“The book is a collection of stories and experiences from my life that I’ve learnt from over the years.  Some from humorous, embarrassing moments, some from deep, heartfelt memories that taught me unlikely things to consistently draw on along the way.”  

Published nationally on 1 October in paperback, ebook and audiobook Just Don’t Be a Dickhead …. And other profound things I’ve learnt is Kasey at her most heartfelt and honest. From her childhood in the Australian outback to the heights of her international success as a singer songwriter, Kasey has trusted her gut, stuck to her values and learned some hard truths, always while trying to live by the best advice she’s ever received: just don’t be a dickhead.

“I am so keen (and a little bit scared) to share these two real and honest representations of my creative soul, along with the inspiration I’ve found in unexpected places throughout my unique life.”

With a foreword from Keith Urban the book has received early praise.  

“This ‘born of the dirt-think on your feet-no bullshit way of being’ that Kasey shares through her life experiences in her book helps you not only navigate life, but informs how you treat others as well.  Sometimes it’s the most simple truisms that light the way for us. – who knows, maybe there was an 11th commandment?, and it simply stated “JUST DON’T BE A DICKHEAD”  – KEITH URBAN 

“A raw, honest and hilarious book, full of great stories and hard won wisdom. Unmistakably Kasey!” – PAUL KELLY

“Just when I thought I couldn’t love Kasey Chambers any more … she writes with such humility, humour, heart and honesty that – like a lyrebird sharing its magical song in the scrub – she uplifts us all.” – KATE LANGBROEK 

To enhance the readers’ experience, QR codes appear throughout the book to take them to the story’s correlating song. Readers can experience the book and the album the way Kasey wrote it, together.  The audio-book also delivers a unique listener experience that includes Kasey reading and performing songs.     

The Album Backbone will be releasing on the 4th of October. Never one to shy away from home truths, introspective storytelling and unfiltered honesty, Chambers’ distinctive brand of writing weaves through both the musically-versatile Backbone and the thematically-versatile Just Don’t Be A Dickhead. Pressing play on the self-produced Backbone will take listeners on a journey through not only where Chambers has been over the years, but where she’s at right now.

Chambers enlisted some of the usual suspects to play on Backbone – her dad and guitarist Bill Chambers, her guitarist Brandon Dodd and longtime bassist Jeff McCormack. In a surprise twist, however, two first-timers also joined the fold in the studio: guitarist Sam Teskey, of The Teskey Brothers, and American drummer Brady Blade – who has drummed for Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and the Dave Matthews to name only a few. 

“Good and bad, this album is who I am,” she says. “I worked with my favourite musicians, and I sang about every beautiful, joyous, embarrassing and tough thing I’ve gone through. Everything that’s gone into making me this person. Even before anyone has heard this album or read the book, I feel like I’ve achieved something special.”

The album’s title track Backbone (The Desert Child) is OUT NOW!

Cover versions of classic songs can be dangerous. Songs that have become a fabric of society to the point where listeners know them intimately and have a deep personal connection. It takes a special artist to take a classic song to a different place and put their own unique stamp on it.

Kasey Chambers fans who have seen her shows in 2022 know this all to well with her incredibly emotional interpretation of Eminem’s 2002 ‘8 Mile’ classic ‘Lose Yourself’. Performed on banjo none the less.

Due to the overwhelming reaction to her performance that has compelled audiences to standing ovations and rapturous applause night after night on her recent Behind the Barricades tour, a live recording of Kasey Chambers ‘Lose Yourself’ is released today by popular demand from fans and festival goers.

Stream or download HERE

Mentioning Kasey Chambers and Eminem in the same sentence will make most music fans raise an eyebrow. Kasey explains: “Eminem has been one of my favourite songwriters for many years. We listen to a lot of him in our house. I’ve been mostly influenced in my life by writers who bravely put fearless emotion into lyrics and no one does that better than Eminem. I don’t really care too much about what genre music fits into, just that the sound comes from a real, authentic place from inside the artist.  Eminem makes me feel things when I hear him. Not always the most comfortable things but I’m not sure that music is always meant to make us feel comfortable.”

Many of Eminem’s hits are about himself and his experiences which can be difficult for another artist to authentically cover. ‘Lose Yourself’ was written in character on the set of 8 Mile, and whilst loosely based on himself, albeit opening the song up to difference interpretations. Kasey connected with this. “I’ve had it in the back of my mind for years that I knew there was a version inside me somewhere of ‘Lose Yourself’ on a banjo that I wanted to play live but it was really just for the self-indulgent reason that I love the song so much,” said Kasey. “It took covid lockdown to give me enough time to learn the lyrics properly and write a melody to it.”

Since debuting the track at the inaugural Wildflower Festival in the Yarra Valley in March this year, Kasey has now performed ‘Lose Yourself’ at each festival show and the 17 date ‘Behind The Barricades’ tour with Busby Marou. The release of ‘Lose Yourself’ was recorded at the final show of the tour at a sold out Civic Theatre in Newcastle. The Newcastle Herald said “It was a strange but beautiful epiphany, listening to the song and seeing a commonality of people all over the world, clinging desperately to a chance at greatness. Am I really crying to a bluegrass version of a rap song from the 2002 movie 8 Mile? My god yes, yes I am.”

“I had no idea that audiences would respond to it like they have. Something else takes over my body when I play it and I get completely lost in it,” Kasey said on reflection. “I can honestly say it’s the most I’ve ever connected to a performance of a cover song in my life.”

The video for ‘Lose Yourself’ was all thanks to Kasey’s fans. Noting so many cameras in the air, Kasey asked fans to send through any footage they had filmed. The result is a perfect time capsule of how a great song, performed authentically from the heart can bring a room of strangers to connect in such a powerful shared emotion.  

KASEY CHAMBERS – ‘LOSE YOURSELF’ LIVE – OUT VIA ESSENCE MUSIC/MGM

The Mundi Mundi Bash is Australia’s newest remote outback music festival set on the Mundi Mundi Plains 40km north west of Broken Hill, with the rugged Barrier Ranges as the backdrop.

“So happy to be back on The Bash lineup!! It’s never just a gig to me – it’s an outback musical experience that takes me back to my childhood and reminds me why I love this country so much.”

– Kasey Chambers

Broken Hill Mundi Mundi Bash
Broken Hill NSW
18 – 20 August 2022
Tickets available here!