WHEN Australian country rock sensation Kasey Chambers described the voice of 15-year-old Kahibah singer songwriter Catherine Britt, she said she 'sounds like (she's) 40 and gone through three marriage breakdowns'.
It might sound like a bizarre compliment but in the world of country, where heartaches, breakdowns, bust-ups and even runaway dogs are all fodder for a good song, it's a tremendous endorsement.
This week Britt will release her debut four-track CD, In The Pines, through Sanity stores in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
It was produced by Kasey Chamber's father, Bill Chambers.
Chambers met Britt in November 1998 at the Steel City Country Music Festival at Boolaroo, which he attended as a performer with wife Audrey.
Bill was so impressed with Catherine he invited her to perform at the Hillbilly Jam in Enmore, alongside Troy Cassar-Daley, Kasey and others.
Last year, Catherine performed at Tamworth's The Pub, where she was invited back to perform this year, at next week's Tamworth Country Music Festival.
She has been invited back to next week's All Girls Show at West Tamworth Leagues Club.
Over the past year she has performed once a month at Tamworth's Hillbilly Jam and as many as four shows a fortnight in Sydney.
Catherine's style is unusual for her age and grounded in traditional country and modern offshoots of that.
Her favourite artists include Hank Williams, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Lucinda Williams and, of course, Kasey Chambers.
Her CD contains two original songs, It's All Up To You and Slow and Steady, as well as a song she co-wrote with Chambers, That Don't Bother Me.
The title track, a traditional country song, is better known to members of Britt's generation as a song recorded by grunge band Nirvana for MTV Unplugged.
Few of Catherine's peers are into country music, much less her three elders brothers, who are fans of 'heavy metal, alternative music and Top 40'.
'Some of my friends are starting to like some of the stuff I listen to now,' she said.
|
