Little Bird

The pressure was off. Kasey Chambers had announced to her manager, record company and fans that there wouldn't be a new album for at least another year. And then the songs came rushing out - 14 diverse compositions, all delivered fully formed, completed within a few hectic weeks in February 2010, during which Kasey also performed as opening act through Lyle Lovett's Australasian tour. It was a mercurial creative period, the most exciting and intensive outpouring of her career: so much joyous, inspired music, brimming with irresistible energy and verve. "This album certainly took me by surprise, but I didn't question where these songs came from; they just arrived." Such spontaneous creativity demanded immediate action; her manager and brother Nash Chambers, agreed, and thus the Little Bird album was swiftly born.

Within a month, recordings had been completed in Nash's Foggy Mountain Studio, using an all-star band that Kasey dubs The Millionaires; John Watson on drums, Jeff McCormack on bass, Shane Nicholson, Jim Mogine (Midnight Oil) and Kasey's dad Bill Chambers playing all manner of guitars and stringed instruments. Then came a procession of respected guest vocalists for different tracks: Missy Higgins, Camille Te Nahu, Kevin Bennett, Brooke Harvey, Andy Toombs, James Gillard, and seminal American country singer Patty Griffin. "These guys are some of my favourite musicians and singers, including the backbone of my touring band, so there is a familiarity and intuitive understanding of where this music should go," says Kasey. Nothing in the recording process sounds forced or laboured; every track sounds fresh, positive, exciting. "When the songs are that fresh, there's something magical about taking them into the studio and bringing them to life, right then and there." Little Bird launches an exciting new phase of Kasey's career, one that shows her confident, calm and full of shimmering optimism.