When you can reduce a star like Lucinda Williams to tears, a feat accomplished by musical rarity Kasey Chambers, you’ve got to be doing something very right.

Chambers’ southern kind of life took place in southern Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. She grew up on the Australian country music circuit as lead singer in the Dead Ringer Band, with the rest of her family, including brother Nash, who is now her manager and producer.

Stepping out from her family country music dynasty, Kasey Chambers’ debut solo album, The Captain, is utterly arresting. This album has 12 tracks, capturing the deep, burred drawl of country and whispering a little girl timbre that has won it best country album of the year in Australia.

Unashamedly proud of her musical direction, The Captain has the kind of quirks to mark the arrival of a truly gifted songsmith. Tracks like "You Got the Car" and "Cry Like A Baby" sound like a lifetime’s experience chiseled graciously into the mouth of the youth. In "Last Hard Bible" Chambers mixes gospel with a touch of Janis Joplin with her songbird rawness. The title track, "The Captain" is a song written for Chambers’ boyfriend. It is a wistful song that lets her heart beat openly. In her finest Emmylou Harris-meets-Lucinda Williams-moment, she gave us "This Flower." The final cut, "We’re All Gonna Die Someday" is a sassy slap on the wrist with well-crafted humor. It even includes a nod to the "Beverly Hillbillies" theme.

The Captain was recorded on Norfolk Island in an old homestead. Chambers wrote 10 of the 12 songs. With a voice ranging from astonishing power to heartbreaking vulnerability, Chambers matches her music with a classic storytellers’ wit. She is incredibly talented and likely to go a long way, all the while keening her heart out halfway between a tear and a laugh.

Time and radio airplay will measure the success of this album but one thing is clear, Chambers breathes freshness into an often-overlooked genre. Her music is predominantly acoustic and spaciously gentle and suggests accolades, comparing her to the likes of America’s country music stars.

Here is a voice to bring the masses to tears. Salute The Captain!

(Warner Bros.)

Ouch! Wince, wince, and wince you will through this entire album. Dark, damaging, teaming with hatred, Sonic JiHard will cut you to the core and leave you bleeding.

The thought that will undoubtedly cross listeners’ minds after listening to this album is "What did the world do to these people to make them so twisted?" Easily, Snake River Conspiracy could share a concert bill with Marilyn Manson. The frightening thought is the crowd that would gather for such an event.

Warning: Don’t listen to this album with children present. Though many of the vocals are quietly sensual, an occasional expletive will screech out of nowhere, sure to be repeated by any stray grade-schoolers.

Sonic JiHad starts with a seething tune called "Breed." It is has a dark, catchy punk/techno beat that would appeal to many and could easily fit into some late night radio programming. They would simply have to drown out the horrify sound of a baby screaming in pain at the end of the song. The second single "Casualty," actually sounds strangely like a song that could have emerged from The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s album. It is sung in a forlornly sensual way, but the words are biting and speak nothing of the hippie state The Beatles were in when Sergeant Pepper’s was created. "You And Your Friend" and "How Soon Is Now?" are teasingly mainstream techno-pop, but the lyrics hold back nothing. Other songs such as "Oh Well," "Somebody Hates You," and "Vulcan," leave absolutely nothing to the imagination, the latter being an anthem of hatred and bigotry.

Somewhere out there, there is a place for this music. The production is great techno prowess on Jason Slater’s part, and will appeal to those who appreciate this genre of the music business. Several tunes are danceable, and they grow on you in a macabre sort of way.