Wayward Angel is only Chambers’ third album since her 1999 debut The Captain. Anyone who heard that title cut and the throwaway two-minute closer “We’re All Gonna Die Someday” was instantly hooked. She’s a storyteller who goes straight to the heart (but also engages your brain), and a painter with words. And that voice ...

If Chambers’ life was like most of her songs -- poor thing! She’d have a lousy self-image and low self-esteem, surrounded by lost souls and half-empty glasses, a PhD in Heartbreak. Truth is, we haven’t had an album from Chambers in three years partly because she got married and had a baby. So much for suffering vs. joy.

There’s been a lot of anticipation from fans about this long-awaited, aptly-named album. The writing spanned a long period, Chambers tells us. The musicians’ line-up hasn’t changed much since ‘99, brother Nash Chambers is still producing and dad Bill Chambers is around (though less than I’d like) with his dobro and lap steel. Kasey Chambers still writes all the songs -- she’s only done one cover ever, a Gram Parsons song (her daddy raised her on his music), though her new hubby co-wrote three with her on Wayward Angel, and she still teams with that guy named Worm.

But whoa! drop the needle on the opening cut (that’s an historical joke, kids, too long to explain, go ask your club DJ) and fear reverberates: Chambers has gone five-year-old on us, unleashing right off the bat the quirkiest elements of that amazing instrument of hers that evokes either awe and adoration or leave-the-room repulsion.

And is it really country? Even with the walking baritone guitar and the lap steel and the sorta yodel and the Bob Wills “ah-hah,” it’s just … weird. It’s scarily, brilliantly evocative of a child’s mind and reference, but this is a child who seems to know what a girl would do with a cowboy who’s nice but looks so mean. Too much Michael Jackson on the news.

Kasey! You named it “Pony” but this is not going to get you on country radio! And then the fantasies and the little girl voice continue into “Hollywood.” Oh Lordy. The arrangements are spare, not inspiring, sonically middle-of-the-road. It sounds like she’s trying to cross over, but she’d be the first to admit she’s no Shania. On the third cut, she adds – an organ! Bad enough that she probes much deeper into human emotion than writing about two-timers and red-white-and-blueshit, but at least it is draped in 21st Century traditional country music, sung in a voice Patsy Cline and Hank Williams would stand up and applaud. Lucinda Williams loves her!

You were starting to gain fans, baby, country music fans. They didn’t even care that you’re an Aussie. I’m listening to this new album and my dreams of seeing you accept your Country Music Association award in your pierced lip and goth trappings are going up in smoke. This is not the path I plotted for your career!

But Wayward Angel seems to work its way back to country as the songs march by, and the really good news is that, although there doesn’t seem to be a “Not Pretty Enough” or “The Captain” here, overall this is Chambers’ strongest writing yet. (“Pony” may wind up the signature song -- I predict it!) She has a unique take on the human condition and the gift to express it powerfully, and she demonstrates here more than ever before the ability to move you not only with her quirky-Kasey voice but also as a pipes-possessing note-holder in the best country style.

So deal with it, Nashville (and Charles Andrews), Kasey Chambers is goin’ where she’s goin’, and as much as Wayward Angel was worth the wait, I’m certain we haven’t heard the best yet from this important artist.