Q Good day. You're listening to 107.1 KGSR. I'm Kevin Connor. Welcome to What Do You Want for Brunch, Live from the KGSR Music Lounge. And normally, we do this the day of a show. The artist is coming into town, they get set up for their concert. But because of their tour schedule, this worked out best for Kasey Chambers and her band and her family. They did a fantastic show last night at La Zona Rosa. Any of you were there? (Cheering.)

Download the 4:55 clip of the interview! (MP3)

A They weren't even there.

Q They were -- well, they're well trained. We'll let you in, we'll feed you, just clap when we hold up the sign. But it was a fantastic show. And it's so glad to have you back here in town.
A Thank you.

Q Please welcome live on KGSR Kasey Chambers.

Song: "A LITTLE BIT LONESOME"
A Thank you.

Q That was Hank Williams channeling himself from the Great Beyond through to Kasey Chambers. I'm sure some people look at the -- they're sure it's a Hank Williams song, but you wrote it.
A I wrote it, yeah. But it was after a week of listening to Hank Williams straight. So you know, it's all that could come out at that point.

Q Kasey Chambers is with us. And her dad, Bill, over there on lead guitar and dobro. Good to see you again, Bill.
A (Bill) Thanks, mate, great to be back.

Q Glen Hannah on guitar as well. Glen. Jeff McCormack on bass. And BJ Barker, the drummer, is here somewhere. BJ, how are you? Nice to see you.
A He's eating all the food in the back.

Q Now, he still gets paid, right?
A He doesn't get paid on normal gigs, what do you mean?

Q Just along for the ride. Two stylish buses. Now, you said last night at La Zona Rosa that one is the family, baby-safe bus and then there's the one for the band.
A That's right, because we've got two babies on the road at the moment. I have an eight-month-old son. And my brother also has a son that's ten weeks old. So, like, we all hang out on one bus, which is the non-smoking, responsible "baby bus." And then we have the rock-and-roll bus where all the band hang out and all the fun happens.

Q The rolling poker party, right? But one of the buses was really Ozzy Osbourne's bus?
A It is, yeah. Someone told me that before I came over on tour. They said "the bus you have for the baby bus is Ozzy Osbourne's bus". And I'm like -- I was freaking out. I'm thinking, I'm dreading to think what Talon is going to find in the bathroom or something. I was really worried about that. And then I come over and I thought, well, you know, they'll probably say that it's very cool at the moment to talk about Ozzy Osbourne. But I was watching the Osbournes yesterday on the bus. And it showed this shot of it, of our bus! So it really is, yeah.

Q It's kind of surreal, huh?
A It was actually cleaner when he was on it. Seriously.

Q And speaking of ironic situations, you write a song about radio -- not us, but the rest of radio -- and say, "Hey, what's wrong? What's wrong with me?" And then it becomes your biggest hit and a No. 1 song for five weeks in Australia.
A It's weird because I wrote that song long before radio had ever played me anywhere. And it was sort of one of those, just insecure moments of wondering why they ignored me. And so I sat down and I wrote this song. And it's funny it ended up going to No. 1 on the pop charts in Australia from all the radio support. I didn't tell them beforehand what it was about, though! (Laughter).

Q You know, radio would never figure it out unless you explained it to them.
A No, really. It sounds like a love song. So I just let them think that until after they made it a hit and then I came out and told everyone.

Q Now that we're No. 1, this song is about you. Well, it's actually on our "broadcasts", CD Volume 10. Thank you very much for giving us that performance. But let's hear it again right now.
A Sure.

Song: "NOT PRETTY ENOUGH"

Q Kasey Chambers on 107.1 KGSR. We got some email the other day and some folks said they were going to be up late. They're up tomorrow to listen on the internet…we're back on the internet. So say hi to Australia folks (cheers). We love you Australia. Come on up and visit. And for those people listening on the Internet in Dallas, you should know that Kasey and her band will be playing tonight at the Gypsy Tea Room. And you can still get tickets. So go check 'em out. And last summer, when you were having your baby, your dad was nice enough, first of all, to call and let us know. That was cool when he called. But he came up and was hanging out in Austin for a while and playing some gigs and bringing out his own new record, which, I think the first song on it, Bill, isn't it I Wish I was in Austin at La Zona Rosa?
A (Bill) It's called Dreaming About Texas.

Q Yeah. There you go. And I got to say, last night at La Zona Rosa it was really touching when it was Kasey and your dad, Bill, and your mom, Diane, and your brother, Nash, all doing the Townes Van Zandt song in Texas. That was just amazing.
A Oh, we're lucky to get a chance to do that, you know. We've been singing that song for as long as I can remember. And we've never played it in Texas before. That was pretty cool.

Q I could just see you sitting around the campfire sometime as kids all learning your parts.
A Yeah, we did. That's exactly what we used to do. You know, it was songs like that that my dad used to teach us when we were out on the (Nalibour?) sitting around the campfire.

Q And he taught you one by John Sebastian.
A Yeah, well, we just learned this one recently. My dad brought out his album called "Sleeping with the Blues" and asked me to do a duet on the album. So it actually took us a while to figure out what song we were going to do, because we sort of wanted to do something that was really fitting of our lifestyle. And this is the one that we found.

Song: "THE STORIES WE COULD TELL"

A: Thanks! That's my Dad!

Q Kasey Chambers and Bill Chambers.
A (Bill) That's my breakfast voice.

Q You'll find that on Bill's album, "Living with the Blues."
A (Bill) Thanks, mate.

Q Thank you. We're live here at the KGSR Music Lounge -- sometimes it's a conference room. And today it's a Music Lounge -- with Kasey Chambers and her band. And it's definitely a family thing, as you brought your son out last night. And your nephew, the guy with all the hair.
A That was his debut appearance in America.

Q Oh, yeah?
A Yeah. He didn't want to get off stage. He just kept grabbing the microphone. It kind of looks like he's going to be a singer or something. I was hoping he was going to be a doctor or a lawyer, but, no such luck.

Q Well, I was going to ask, because, as you said, you grew up singing the songs. Did you ever give any thought to any other career but what you're doing?
A No, I didn't think I could do anything else, really. I left school way too early to think about anything else. It's just as well that this is paying the bills.

Q And paying them very well. We're glad to have you back here in Austin. And I read that you have some other kids in some other countries, too, like Vietnam?
A Yeah. Well, my mom actually spends a little bit of time over there visiting orphanages and all of that sort of thing: in Vietnam and a whole lot of other places, but especially there. And she spends a lot of time back in Australia raising money for the orphanages over there. We do our part to help. The song Ignorance on my album, all the royalties from that goes to the orphanages over there. And we also sell a whole lot of merchandise that raises money for that. But it's mostly my mom. She's the saint. She's the one who's doing that. She's around, somewhere…

Q She's right back there, Diane. We had a request -- well, it was my request (laughter) and I got to tell you. It was A Million Tears, but I read that it was your favorite song on the record, but that you don't do it -- you hadn't been doing it live, because it was so emotional.
A Yeah, I mean, I don't know about emotional. Probably just more personal. You know, it's probably the song on the album that I'm probably most honest with myself about, which is scary to play to a bunch of strangers. But you all look like nice people (laughter). It's just hard sometimes. You know, when I'm sitting in a room writing a song, the last thing I'm thinking about is that I actually have to play it to somebody else, ever. So I don't think about that at all in the writing process. But I mean, also, one of the reasons I don't do it is because it's kind of a hard song to sing. And I've got the croaky morning voice now. But I can't say no to you. Dammit!

News Anchor Todd Jeffries and Evening host Bobby Ray with Kasey

Q Sure you can. People do all the time! You sing whatever you want, Kasey.
A Okay.

Q But if you think you can pull it off, give it a go.
A Well, we'll try.

Song: "A MILLION TEARS"

Q Kasey Chambers on KGSR. That was lovely, thank you.
A Thank you.

Q Now, you said that song is very personal. And I'm sorry, but now I have to get personal with you. I was watching that Michael Jackson thing the other night. And it told me I had to ask tougher questions. Did you happen to see that?
A I did.

Q Oh, my God!
A I'm scared now, though.

Q Yeah. He thinks he's Peter Pan, but he's more like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. It was very, very sad. And I don't want to bust this nice little happy "family on the road" image and everything. I saw your son with his dad on the side of the stage last night. But I've got to ask you, I know you have a heart divided. I'm going to ask you straight on, who is Carlton Foote and what is he to you? Carlton Foote. I know there's some Carlton Foote you're crazy about.
A It's a -- I don't want to tell you. It's the Carlton football club. It's like my football team at home.

Q Oh, okay.
A But the reason I don't want to tell you is because they ended up on the bottom of the ladder this year. For the first time ever, they are the losers.

Q Oh, no. I'm only partially informed, then. I'm sorry. So that's Australian football. They don't wear helmets and pads and stuff.
A I'm sighing now. I thought that was going to be a lot worse.

Q Carlton Football Club. Yeah. So I saw their T-shirt. It says, "It's my club, it's personal." People take their football very personally here. I hope they don't dress up like --
A We do.

Q All right. We've got time for maybe a song, if you do.
A Sure.

Q Because I know you have to get back on the road and go up to Dallas to play. And I saw your itinerary. You don't take any breaks, right?
A No, well, we like to be on the move anyway. We get itchy feet if we stay in one place and do nothing too long. So --

Q And I know you were on the Tonight Show the other night. But you'll be on Conan O'Brian later on in the tour?
A Yeah. Yeah, I have no idea when that is, but -- the 27th. Okay. The 27th. Very good, Glen. That's my guitar player. I'm astounded (laughs). We normally don't know what the hell we're doing from one day to the next! You know, our tour manager gets on the bus and goes, "All right. Get off here and go and play a song."

Q Well, your time here in Austin is always so fleeting. I know you got to stay for a couple of days during South By Southwest a couple of years ago. And that was really fun, the show at Waterloo Park.
A Yeah, that was amazing. That's the only thing that I would change when we come over and tour over here is we go to certain places where you're pretty keen to get out of them quickly. But most of the places we go, we'd really like to stay a little bit longer. And Austin is definitely one of those places, because we come in and we do a gig and come in and do something like this. And then we're off again. But I keep hearing about all this great music that's always on here. And we never get the chance to actually go out and see it. So I'm hoping we can come back and maybe stay for a couple of weeks.

Q Here's my cunning plan, okay?
A Okay. Bring it on.

Q We'll talk to your producer, your brother, Nash, about this. But what would you think ??
A Don't talk to him. We'll just do it.

Q All right. You talk to him! What would you think about making your next record here? Why not? I mean, the Dixie Chicks made their last record at a little studio -- you wouldn't even know it's there in South Austin. You could get one house for the babies, one house for the band and just stay for a couple of months and make your record.
A I don't see why we can't make it right here (in the station), doing what we're doing here.

Q Okay. Fine, then.
A This seems pretty easy, you know.

Q Well, we better get more beer.
A Exactly. We can have the live audience here and everything. It would be great.

Q You just think about that.
A We seriously want to come back and spend a little bit of time here and, you know, get to know the place a little bit better. You know, we love it so… We can't wait to get back.

Q All right. Well, it's always great to have you here. Kasey Chambers. The latest album is "Barricades and Brick Walls." And what do you want to do to close things out here?
A Well, I was sort of -- I'm trying to play songs that we haven't played on here last time ?? the last few times. But I know I have played this song before, but I really enjoy playing it, so we're going to do it again. It's called The Captain.

Song: "THE CAPTAIN"

KGSR's Engineer Extraordinaire Bill Johnson with Kasey

A Thank you. Thanks so much Kevin

Q Kasey Chambers folks! With Jeff McCormack on bass, Glen Hannah on guitar, Bill Chambers on guitar, BJ would have played the hell out of the drums if there was time to set them up. Thanks to the whole Chambers family. Kasey -
A Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. You really are our most favorite radio station in the whole world. Thank you. I mean that.

(End of Interview)