DAVE'S DIARY - 2 APRIL 2006 - BILL CHAMBERS CD REVIEW

BILL CHAMBERS
FROZEN GROUND (ESSENCE-EMI)

It's prophetic that Bill Chambers kicks off his second solo disc with songs that exploit weather metaphors to depict changes in the climate of love.

Death is the equaliser in Falling Like The Snow but Chambers finds escape from a dominatrix in Chasing Rainbows.

"You think you've got me by the balls/ but there's a million fractures in these walls."
Chambers also injects his ruptured romance requiems Ain't Your Town No More and Poison Blood with vast vats of vitriol.

Pity the vixen who inspired "every song you sing rings a bell that only losers ring" in the former where the mood swings with Michel Rose on pedal steel and Bill on dobro, lap steel and slide guitar.

But don't believe Grandpa Bill, 53, is a bitter bard - those songs benefit from being at opposite ends of this powerful 12-track tableau.

Chambers also dips into joyous love, giving solace to a grief stricken belle in Theresa, sweetened by Tim Wedde's accordion, and covers the timely Johnny Cash classic Big River with Wedde's Flood band mate Kevin Bennett sharing vocals.

And that heart beats loud and long on The Island where the singer's character sings of his grief leaving his lover behind.

Equally poignant This Ain't Louisiana - a chance encounter with a barmaid in a "one horse Queensland town" is the carnal conduit to memories of a Storyville sweetheart.

Chambers broadens his bow with biblical eulogy The Stranger and paternal love in finale Little Man.

He punctuates originals with Randy Newman's Rider In The Rain and the Rowland Salley classic Killing The Blues.

Chambers probably didn't need the covers - his originals prove time enriched rather than dimmed his talent on a disc challenging protégée Catherine Britt for best local album of 2006.

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