Kasey Chambers is about as Southern as a country artist can get, albeit not in the traditional sense. Chambers plays American roots music, but she writes and records at home in southern Australia, not Nashville.

One wouldn't guess Chambers' place of birth based on her music alone. She cites American legends like Lucinda Williams and Gram Parsons as her biggest influences and wears those influences on her sleeve, trying her best to rewrite Williams' songbook and even covering Parsons' "Still Feeling Blue."

So long as Chambers stays true to Williams and Parsons' rustic sound, her new Barricades & Brickwalls is a success. And she does, for the most part.

The title track and "Runaway Train" are as gritty and rugged as anything on Williams' Car Wheels On a Gravel Road. "A Little Bit Lonesome" is perfect Patsy Cline. "Crossfire" is as fast and freewheeling as the bikers for whom both Chambers and Williams croon, thanks to a guest appearance by The Living End, an Australian punk band. Williams guests on "On a Bad Day," and it sounds like the best stuff on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack.

Chambers only slips up when she lets the allure of Nashville get the best of her. "Not Pretty Enough" is far too glossy, and Chambers' preciousness on the track is grating.

But flaws like that are far outweighed by the album's successes. Barricades & Brickwalls may not be a masterpiece like Williams' last two albums, but it's still very good, and a pleasant reminder that the best country music is often made quite far from Nashville.

-- Reviewed by Justin Stranzl