Bill Chambers Sleeping With the Blues

Price: $29.95

This was a bit of a surprise, though it probably should not have been so. The Duet album of Bill & Audrey made my top 5 list going back a couple of years ago, as a genuine honky tonk entry to the new millennium and here, Bill's solo debut album is a new kettle of fish, no doubt. Showing the influence of the recent years of turmoil in his life, it's a difficult album to peg. It's intensely personal, full of reference to his time on the international stages, and motel rooms that don't quite match the illusion of fame into which he and family members have been propelled. It's like a Texan songwriter pouring his heart all over his sleeve. Eight self-written songs, and a few ring-ins, notably 'Stories We Could Tell' from John Sebastian, a duet with Kasey, and echoing the lyrics "If this all blows up and goes to hell, I can still see us sitting on a bed in some hotel, listening to the stories we could tell" as you picture the two of them doing just that, picking and singing in a small motel somewhere between gigs. Fred Eaglesmith gets a look in with his 'Big Ass Garage Sale' and Mary Gautier's 'I Drink', his wonderful duet with Audrey 'The Whiskey Isn't Workin'' is also included and lifts the mood considerably but the angst of lost love is all over this one, so it's not one for the honky tonkers, it's a songwriter just working a few things out with a pen and a guitar, not yet Luke Chambers, but… Ron CapNews Sept 2002