Kasey Chambers (b. 1976) was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia, into a musical family. During her early childhood she spent at least six months of every year living on the Nullarbor Plain, where her parents scratched out a living hunting foxes and rabbits and playing music at country pubs. By the time she was nine, Kasey was regularly joining her parents and older brother Nash on stage. In 1992 the family became full-time musicians. Performing as The Dead Ringer Band, they released three albums between 1995 and 1998, winning 7 Golden Guitars and two ARIA awards. Kasey launched her solo career in 1999 with The Captain, a country album that became an immense crossover success. It went top-ten in Australia and laid the foundation for her later success in the US. At the 2000 ARIAs she edged out the likes of Kylie Minogue in the Best Female Artist category, becoming the first country performer to take out the award. In 2002 her second album Barricades & Brickwalls went quadruple-platinum, and yielded the number 1 single "Not Pretty Enough." In the same year she gave birth to a son, Talon, and took home her second ARIA as Best Female Artist. At the 2004 ARIAs she received that honour for the 3rd time, as well as scoring the Best Country Album award for her latest CD Wayward Angel (2004).
