At a time when most Australian girls her age were swooning over INXS or cooing along with Kylie Minogue, young Kasey Chambers [ tickets ] was sinking her teeth into songs by Hank Williams, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris and Johnny Cash.

Chambers grew up in the Nullarbor Plain in Australia, a vast, barren region of the continent that spans the southern Central Coast. Growing up she sang in the Dead Ringer Band, comprised of her father Bill, mother Diane and her older brother Nash, before striking out on with her solo debut, "The Captain," which was recorded in 1998 and released in the U.S. in 2000.

Having charmed critics from New York to L.A., toured the world on the strength of her solo debut and survived one spin through the rough-and-tumble music business cycle, Chambers returned to her current hometown of Avoca Beach, Australia, and recorded the 13-song "Barricades and Brickwalls," scheduled for U.S. release on Jan. 29, in a studio owned by INXS bassist Gary Beers.

Chambers' new album features guest spots from Lucinda Williams, Matthew Ryan and the Living End, a cover of Gram Parsons' "Still Feelin' Blue'" and some honest reflection on life as a professional musician. Kasey Chambers talked with liveDaily about her new album in a long-distance telephone call from her home in Australia.

How do you feel you've evolved as a songwriter?

I think probably just the age is the biggest difference. Writing songs when you're 15 or 16, you�re obviously seeing the world in a lot different light than what you are when you're 25, or then again, when I�m 30 or something. It's kind of changed a lot in that aspect, but also I've done a lot of different things. I've learned a lot more about music and gotten into a lot of different artists [during] the last few years. I�ve traveled a lot through the world, which I hadn�t really done before. I'd kind of spent most of my time in Australia before that. I guess I've just learned a little more about the things I'm writing about, in particular, but also how to say things a little better then what I was trying my hardest to do when I was 16 or 17.

What's it like listening back to the songs you wrote a while ago? Do they feel like naked baby pictures?

It does in a way, but I've been singing all of these songs most every night for the last four or five years. I'm still fairly used to them. Sometimes I go back and actually listen to the album, and then I get a little bit embarrassed about some things--like, "Oh, man, I can�t believe it sounds like that." But we�re still very familiar with all of the songs, so it�s not too big of a shock. Obviously, I do listen to some songs now and I think, "If I wrote that song now, it would come out sounding a lot different."

Can you give me an example of a song on the new album where you feel like, two or three years ago, you wouldn't have had the savvy or world-wise view to have written?

There�s a song called "If I Were You," which is the oldest song on there, and "On a Bad Day." Those two are songs I wrote just after I recorded "The Captain." I think you can kind of tell in those two songs that that was back three or four years ago. Compared to songs like "This Mountain" or "Million Tears," they�re kind of some of the later songs I�ve written.

"This Mountain," in particular, I never would have written five years ago. It wouldn't have come out sounding like that. Even the topic is kind of about a lot of things I�ve discovered in the last year or so. I think I've gone through a lot of different emotional things in the last two or three years that I kind of thought--I sort of thought that those years were going to be easier. And it�s not like that at all. Obviously, with things going a little better with my career here in Australia and having the financial pressures off me, I was kind of thinking things were going to be a little easier, and I�m finding them a whole lot harder really. That song in particular, actually was a little realization to kind of snap out of it and go, "Well, this side of your life isn�t the real side." This is the fun that you try not to take too seriously and just go along with it and have a lot of fun with it, but there's other aspects of my life that need to take a lot more care.

I felt like there's a series of songs that address that same kind of feeling from a variety of angles. I felt like "Not Pretty Enough" was in that same vein.

I think you�re right that a lot of the songs were kind of a build-up. I think "This Mountain" was more like an exact moment that I kind of snapped out of it, maybe and had a bit of a realization. But there's a lot of songs that kind of brought me to that point and being part of that. ["Not Pretty Enough"] is kind of saying, "If all these reasons that I'm talking about in this song are reasons that you don't like me, or that you won�t play me on the radio or you don't notice me, or all those things, then I'm OK with that, because this is me and I like that about me."

And that seems to lead into--it seemed on the last record, and on this one--a sub-genre of songs that I'm going to call the You Can Kiss My Ass songs. Because I noticed there a couple songs on this record that were in that territory, where you made that offer to those who don't get it. [laughs] I had a little bit of that on the last album as well.

"We're All Going to Die Someday."

Yeah, but even "Cry Like a Baby" was even a little like that. I know it doesn't actually say that in that song, but kind of like, "This is who I am, take it or leave it" sort of thing. But I think this new album shows a little more confidence in saying that. I think back then, I was saying it and being a little wary of how people perceived those particular lines, but now it's sort of like, "Well, this is what I'm saying, like it or lump it." I think you�ve got to come to a point where you realize there's only so many people you can go on trying to please without pleasing yourself, and this album is very much saying that. Saying that, I really do hope people like it.

Lucinda Williams sings backing vocals for "On a Bad Day." Was that written specifically with her in mind?

No, not really, I wrote that just after I wrote "The Captain." It was a song I always wanted to put on the next album. I liked it. Lucinda and I have gotten closer over the last couple years, and she's been very supportive and said any time she could help out at all, to let her know. I asked her if she�d sing on the album and she said she�d love to. I could kind of hear her singing on that song [after I wrote it]. It came out even better than I'd hoped.

You wrote "Falling into You" after meeting a new boyfriend. Are you someone who has a hard time trusting the good things that come to you? Are you pretty wary?

I hate that people know that about me just from my songs. [laughing] It means I'm letting too much away. I am a little wary.

I sat down--that was a mission for me, to write that song--I kind of sat down and I thought, "All these great things are happening and I'm very, very happy right now." And I said to my boyfriend, "I don�t know if I'm going to be able to write any sad songs anymore." People don�t want to hear happy songs. That was kind of a mission--to see if I could sit down and still write a sad song about something that made me unbelievably happy, and that's what I come up with.

There�s a line in "Million Tears" where it says, "All my life I�ve welcomed pain." It's kind of a really hard thing to admit about yourself, but a lot of people do it. Until I wrote that song, I don't think I was all that conscious of that. But I�m hoping to kind of change that. Good things happen, but you look for the bad things, which is a terrible way to look at things. It's too long in the music industry.

The song "Ignorance": I noticed you were going to be donating the proceeds to a charity in Vietnam, and I wanted to see why that charity in particular?

Well, mainly through my mom. Funny you should ask that--my mom just walked in the door when you asked that, and now she's coming to listen to what I'm saying about her. I'd better be really nice.

My mom has been over to Vietnam and spent some time in the orphanages over there. She came home and started raising a lot of money for a lot of the orphanages in Vietnam and Cambodia. So that's kind of where the affiliation comes with that. I was talking to [my mom] a little while before I wrote "Ignorance." I was talking to her about all the stuff going on in the world.

My mom�s probably what you'd call a saint, doing these amazing great things. And I'm kind of riding on that a lot. She's always doing great things for charity, and even for people in general. I thought it was maybe time I do a little bit on my own, and that song gave me a bit of an outlet to do that.

Are you somebody who pays close attention to current events?

Not really. I think that was kind of where this realization comes from. I'm one of those people that when the ads that come on for starving children in Third World countries, I�m like, "Oh, that's sad," and then I walk away from the television. I don�t pay too much notice, and my mom made me a lot more aware of that.

Also, an interviewer in L.A. said, "If you�re not pissed off at the world, you�re not paying attention." I kind of thought, "Yeah, that�s me." I've gone on thinking that for a long time, just going, "My life's great, I�m having a hell of a time." And when I have problems, I think they're the biggest problems in the world. Which everyone does, but I think there�s a way we can be a little more aware of what's going on in the world and do some things about it that will help.