Kasey Chambers

Kasey Chambers is the ultimate in cool on the cover of her new album, "Barricades & Brickwalls." Staring seductively at the camera as she walks down the street dangling a guitar in hand, she looks like the maverick love child of Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams. The Australian singer-songwriter brings the character and independence of that pairing to the album's defiant title track--a rowdy, feminist declaration that runs counter to all the helpless waif songs in pop music.