COUNTRY GIRL KASEY CHAMBERS' SOUND IS DOWN-HOME AMERICAN, BUT SHE'S NOT FROM ANYWHERE AROUND THESE PARTS.

Byline: Sandra Barrera Staff Writer

For somebody who makes her living off of writing and performing sad country songs, Kasey Chambers sounds awfully chipper on the phone.

The critically acclaimed 25-year-old singer-songwriter, whose old-timey twang inspired Rolling Stone to write, ``You know things are going to hell when the freshest young voice in American roots music is Australian,'' blames her happy mood on the fact that she and her boyfriend are having a baby together.

``It sort of crept up on us a little quicker than we'd talked about, but it was a nice surprise,'' she says.

That's not the only reason she's so cheery. Chambers, whose new CD ``Barricades & Brickwalls'' was released this week in America amid high anticipation, and who performs Tuesday at the Roxy, is fast becoming an immensely popular country singer because of her old-school take on the music.

Her 1999 debut, ``The Captain,'' was a double-platinum-selling album before its autumn 2000 release in the United States and Chambers a bona fide star with two ARIAs (Australia equivalent of a Grammy) to her name. She wowed audiences at the Austin, Texas, South by Southwest music festival; landed an opening slot on Lucinda Williams' tour; and earned the distinction of having her album's title track prominently featured in the HBO series ``The Sopranos.''

She even became the first foreign country artist to headline ``Austin City Limits.''

It was also around this time that Nic Harcourt, host of the Santa Monica- based KCRW-FM (89.9) music program ``Morning Becomes Eclectic'' and its syndicated spinoff ``Sounds Eclectic,'' began regularly playing Chambers' music. By October 2000, she was asked to play a live set on the radio show that Harcourt says is not known for playing country music.

But Chambers, he says, is no ordinary country musician.

``She's more authentic than most country artists that are coming out of America right now,'' he says, adding that part of his draw to Chambers music was her ability to mix American country roots with soul-searching lyrics.

On ``Barricades & Brickwalls,'' Chambers showcases her personality while reflecting on her unusual past. The first decade of her life was spent crisscrossing the barren Australian outback known as the Nullarbor Plain with her family because her father was a fox hunter.

Chambers remembers, in the seemingly endless expanse of red dirt, salt bush and kangaroo - which they ate - how her parents imparted their love of country music to both her and her brother with campfire sing-alongs. Their set list usually included a sampling of American country artists such as Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, all of whom greatly influence Chambers musically - Vanity Fair writes her ``pared-down twang evokes early Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton.''

By 1992, six years after the Chambers clan returned to civilization, she began fronting the family's musical group, the Dead Ringer Band. The band toured throughout Australia, recording seven albums and racking up a number of country music awards before disbanding in the late '90s after her parents divorced.

Chambers, now a solo artist, still works closely with her family. Her brother, Nash, produces her albums and, ``Even though my parents have broken up,'' she says, ``they still both come on the road with me.''

Her father is her guitarist.

By early summer, Chambers' touring entourage will have grown by one. A boy? A girl? Chambers says she wants the birth of her baby to be a surprise.

``I'm really looking forward to having a baby and being a mum,'' she says. ``I'm also sort of looking forward to just having some personal time.''

That includes spending more time with boyfriend Cori Hopper, a struggling Australian actor. She says the two were introduced by a mutual friend shortly after Chambers began work on her new album.

The song ``Falling Into You'' off of ``Barricades & Brickwalls'' is about the meeting that Chambers' describes as a ``fairy tale, love-at-first- sight sort of thing.'' But writing the song proved to be difficult for Chambers.

``I was saying to Cori, 'I write these sad country songs all the time, and now that you've made me so happy you might have ruined my career,' '' she says. ``So I sort of made it my mission to sit down and write a sad song about being so happy and how he makes me feel.''

KASEY CHAMBERS

Where: Roxy Theatre, 9009 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone].

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no caption (Kasey Chambers)