Bill Chambers (musician)

Last updated

Bill Chambers
Born Southend, South Australia, Australia
GenresCountry
Occupation(s)Singer, musician

Bill Chambers is an Australian country musician and former member of the Dead Ringer Band. [1] [2] Chambers's albums Sleeping with the Blues and Cold Trail were nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Country Album. [3] He is best known as being the father of Nash Chambers and Kasey Chambers.

Contents

Career

Bill Chambers was born in Southend, South Australia and married his wife Diane at age 20. Together they had two children, Nash in 1974 and Kasey in 1976. Shortly after the birth of Kasey in 1976, Chambers moved his family to central Australia's Nullarbor Plain and earned a living by hunting and trapping rabbits and foxes that raided Nullarbor poultry farms, then selling the pelts. Bill home schooled Nash and Kasey, and taught them American folk and country music by the Carter Family, Jimmie Rogers, Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons, as well as Australian country artists Slim Dusty, Buddy Williams and Tex Morton. In 1986, Bill moved the family to Southend, located on the southern coast of Australia, and began playing as a band at local public houses. [4]

As a family quartet, billed under Bill's name, they released Sea Eagle in 1987 and Kindred Spirit in 1991, before changing their name to Dead Ringer Band . [4]

In 1998, Bill and Diane separated and were divorced and ended Dead Ringer Band after four studio album. Bill moved to Sydney, started producing records, started a record label, Reckless Records. Late in 1998, the label's first album Looking Back to See with Audrey Auld (as Bill & Audrey) was released. By 1999, Chambers began focussing on supporting Kasey's fledgling solo career. [1]

In 2002 Chambers released a solo album called Sleeping with the Blues, which was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Country Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2003. He contributed to the various artists album Reckless Records Garage Sale 1997-2003.

In 2006, Chambers released Frozen Ground. In 2009, Chambers released Drifting South.

In July 2013, Chambers released Live at the Pub Tamworth, which featured special guests Kasey Chambers, Shane Nicholson and Kevin Bennett.

In January 2016, Chambers released Cold Trail. The album was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Country Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2016.

In January 2019, Chambers released 1952, an album inspired by Hank Williams.

Discography

Albums

List of album, with selected details
TitleAlbum details
Sea Eagle
  • Released: 1987
  • Label: Dead Ringer Band
  • Formats: CD
Kindred Spirit
  • Released: 1991
  • Label: Dead Ringer Band
  • Formats: CD
Looking Back to See
(with Audrey Auld)
as Bill & Audrey
  • Released: 1998
  • Label: Reckless Records (RECK001)
  • Formats: CD
Sleeping with the Blues
  • Released: 2002
  • Label: Reckless Records (RECK003)
  • Formats: CD
Frozen Ground
  • Released: February 2006
  • Label: Whitewater / Essence (3496882)
  • Formats: CD
Drifting South
  • Released: September 2009
  • Label: Whitewater (001)
  • Formats: CD
Live at the Pub Tamworth
  • Released: July 2013
  • Note: Live album
  • Label: Whitewater (004)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
Cold Trail
  • Released: 22 January 2016 [5]
  • Label: Whitewater ( 004)
  • Formats: CD, digital download
1952
  • Released: 18 January 2019 [6]
  • Label: Bill Chambers
  • Formats: digital download

Awards and nominations

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as AIR Awards) is an annual awards night to recognise, promote and celebrate the success of Australia's Independent Music sector.

YearNominee / workAwardResult
AIR Awards of 2017 [7] [8] Cold TrailBest Independent Country AlbumNominated

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. Bill Chambers has been nominated twice. [9]

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2003 Sleeping with the Blues Best Country Album Nominated
2016 Cold TrailBest Country AlbumNominated

Country Music Awards of Australia

The Country Music Awards of Australia (CMAA) (also known as the Golden Guitar Awards) is an annual awards night held in January during the Tamworth Country Music Festival, celebrating recording excellence in the Australian country music industry. They have been held annually since 1973. [10]

YearNominee / workAwardResult (wins only)
1992"Things Are Not The Same on the Land" (written by Bill Chambers and recorded by Slim Dusty)Smoky Dawson AwardWon

Tamworth Songwriters Awards

The Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) is an annual songwriting contest for original country songs, awarded in January at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. They commenced in 1986. [11] Bill Chambers won one award in that time. [12]

YearNominee / workAwardResult (wins only)
1992"Things Are Not The Same on the Land" by Bill ChambersTraditional Bush Ballad of the YearWon

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slim Dusty</span> Australian country music singer-songwriter (1927–2003)

Slim Dusty, AO MBE was an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon and one of the country's most awarded stars, with a career spanning nearly seven decades and producing numerous recordings. He was known to record songs in the legacy of Australia, particularly of bush life and renowned Australian bush poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson that represented the lifestyle. The music genre was coined the "bush ballad", a style first made popular by Buddy Williams, the first artist to perform the genre in Australia, and also for his many trucking songs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kasey Chambers</span> Australian rock singer-songwriter and musician (born 1976)

Kasey Chambers is an Australian country singer-songwriter and musician born in Mount Gambier. She is the daughter of fellow musicians, Diane and Bill Chambers, and the younger sister of musician and producer, Nash Chambers. All four were members of family country music group in Dead Ringer Band, in Bowral, New South Wales, from 1992 to 1998, with Chambers starting her solo career thereafter. Five of her twelve studio albums have reached No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Barricades & Brickwalls, Wayward Angel, CarnivalRattlin' Bones and Dragonfly. In November 2018 she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and has won an additional fourteen ARIA Music Awards with nine for Best Country Album. Her autobiography, A Little Bird Told Me..., which was co-authored with music journalist, Jeff Apter, was released in 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troy Cassar-Daley</span> Australian musician

Troy Cassar-Daley is an Australian country music songwriter and entertainer.

<i>The Captain</i> (album) 1999 studio album by Kasey Chambers

The Captain is the solo debut album of Australian country music singer Kasey Chambers. The Captain won the 1999 ARIA Music Award for Best Country Album. Prior to releasing this album, Chambers had performed more than a decade with her family's Dead Ringer Band, a popular Australian country music group. The title track was featured in "He Is Risen", an episode of The Sopranos, while "The Hard Way" was featured in the season 2 episode of Lost, "Two for the Road".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jodi Martin</span> Australian singer-songwriter

Jodi Miranda Martin is an Australian singer-songwriter. Her professional music career began in mid-1996 while she was still a student, when she was the opening act for Arlo Guthrie's first Australian tour. Brisbane Times called her "one of Australia's most up and coming singer songwriters." She has been influenced by Joni Mitchell and compared to Tracy Chapman and Suzanne Vega.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The McClymonts</span>

The McClymonts are an Australian country music trio comprising sisters Brooke McClymont, Samantha McClymont and Mollie McClymont, originally from Grafton, New South Wales. They have released one eponymous EP and six studio albums, Chaos and Bright Lights, Wrapped Up Good, Two Worlds Collide, Here's To You & I, Endless and Mayhem to Madness. They have won fifteen Golden Guitars and two ARIA Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Britt</span> Australian country music artist

Catherine Elisabeth Britt is an Australian country music artist who has had success in both her native Australia and in the United States. She started her career in Newcastle in 1999, she moved to Nashville from 2002 to 2008 and then returned to Australia. Britt has had three singles in top 40 on the US Billboard Hot Country Songs charts with "The Upside of Being Down", her highest, peaking at No. 36 in 2004. Britt has released seven studio albums in Australia, where all seven have appeared on the ARIA Albums Chart, Too Far Gone, Little Wildflower, Catherine Britt and Always Never Enough. All five albums have been nominated for ARIA Music Awards in the category, Best Country Album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beccy Cole</span> Musical artist

Beccy Cole, also known as Beccy Sturtzel, Rebecca Diane Albeck and Bec O'Donovan, is an Australian country music singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has released ten studio albums, with six reaching the ARIA Albums Chart top 40, Little Victories, Preloved, Songs & Pictures, Great Women of Country, Sweet Rebecca and The Great Country Songbook Volume 2. Her video album, Just a Girl Singer, peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Top 40 DVD Chart. Cole has received nine Golden Guitar trophies at the CMAA Country Music Awards of Australia. During December 2005 to January 2006 she performed for Australian Defence Force personnel in Iraq. Her related single, "Poster Girl ", expresses her support for the troops. It won the 2007 Song of the Year at CMAA awards, and its music video was listed at No. 1 on Australia's Country Music Channel. In March 2015 she published her autobiography, Poster Girl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tania Kernaghan</span> Australian country music singer (born 1968)

Tania Maree Kernaghan is an Australian country music singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shane Nicholson (singer)</span> Musical artist

Shane Nicholson is an Australian singer-songwriter from Brisbane. He has released 11 albums, both in Australia and internationally, and has won 3 ARIA Awards, 15 Golden Guitars, and 2 APRA Awards. He's twice been named Producer of the Year at the Country Music Awards of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Brand (musician)</span> Australian country musician

Adam Brand is an Australian country singer-songwriter. Brand released his debut album in 1997. He has since released 14 studio albums and has won 12 Country Music Awards of Australia. Adam Brand has been voted CMC Oz Artist of the Year five consecutive years between 2007 – 2011.

<i>Wreck & Ruin</i> 2012 studio album by Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson

Wreck & Ruin is the second collaboration album between the Australian country singer Kasey Chambers and the Australian singer Shane Nicholson, released by Liberation Music in Australia on 7 September 2012.

<i>Bittersweet</i> (Kasey Chambers album) 2014 studio album by Kasey Chambers

Bittersweet is the tenth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers. It was released in August 2014 and debuted at No. 2 in Australia, making it her sixth top 5 album in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fanny Lumsden</span> Australian country music singer

Edwina Margaret Lumsden, professionally known as Fanny Lumsden, is an Australian country music singer and songwriter. Lumsden is best known for her ARIA-award winning album Fallow.

Dead Ringer Band were an Australian family country music band. They are best known for their ARIA Award-winning album Home Fires which won the Best Country Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 1996.

Nash Chambers is an Australian record producer, talent manager, audio engineer and multi-instrumentalist. He is a former member of the family country music group, Dead Ringer Band (1986–98), with his father Bill, mother Diane, and younger sister Kasey Chambers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">If I Were You (Kasey Chambers song)</span> 2002 single by Kasey Chambers

"If I Were You" is a song by Australian country music singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers, produced by her brother Nash Chambers for her second studio album, Barricades & Brickwalls (2001). It was released as the album's fifth and final single on 14 October 2002, peaking at number 32 on the Australian Singles Chart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angus Gill</span> Australian singer-songwriter (born 1998)

Angus Gill is an Australian singer-songwriter, comedian and producer from Wauchope in New South Wales. Gill is a Golden Guitar winner and an Australian Independent Country Music Award winner. He has had eight #1 songs on the Australian country music radio charts. In November 2019, Gill became one of the youngest Australian artists to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

<i>Campfire</i> (Kasey Chambers album) 2018 studio album by Kasey Chambers

Campfire is the twelfth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers and co-credited to the Fireside Disciples, a trio of Kasey's long-term guitarist Brandon Dodd, Kasey's father Bill Chambers and Yawuru elder Alan Pigram.

References

  1. 1 2 Best, Sophie (13 October 2002), "The man behind Kasey Chambers", The Age
  2. Campbell, Al, "Bill Chambers", Allmusic
  3. Zuel, Bernard (5 October 2016), "ARIA Award nominations have a hairy surprise among the Flumes and Avalanches", The Sydney Morning Herald
  4. 1 2 "Kasey Chambers Singer, songwriter". encyclopedia. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  5. "Cold Trail album". Apple Music. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  6. "1952 album". Apple Music. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  7. "A.B Original dominates 2017 AIR Awards nominations". theindustryobserver. 31 May 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  8. "History Wins". Australian Independent Record Labels Association . Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  9. "ARIA Awards Search Results – Bill Chambers". ARIA Awards. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  10. "Past Award Winners". Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  11. "Tamworth Songwriters Association". Tamworth Songwriters Association Online. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  12. "Tamworth Songwriters Association Past Winners". Tamworth Songwriters Association Online. Retrieved 23 March 2022.