Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly will release his 19th studio album ‘Spring And Fall’ on October 19th, his first album of new material since 2007’s highly successful ‘Stolen Apples’.
‘Spring And Fall’ arrives on the heels of an extended period of retrospective activity, during which Kelly celebrated his extensive body of work with the release of the career-spanning 40-song compilation Paul Kelly’s Greatest Hits: Songs From The South, the memoir How To Make Gravy and the eight-CD, 105-song live box set The A To Z Recordings. His entire catalogue has been re-mastered and re-released through his own label, Gawd Aggie Recordings, both in Australia and overseas.
‘Spring And Fall’ is a song cycle which tells a love story from multiple points of view. Paul explains further,
“Noticing that people are listening to music more and more now in a grazing kind of way – picking a song here and a song there – spurred me on to try and make a record that would take a stand on behalf of the ALBUM. I’m a music grazer with the best of them but there is still a deep satisfaction in encountering a set of songs that unfolds from start to finish and demands to be heard in its entirety.”
Recorded with J Walker from Machine Translations and Paul’s nephew Dan Kelly in a country hall last July, the new album features cameos from long time collaborators Peter and Dan Luscombe on drums and piano respectively. Guest vocalists on the album are Laura Jean and Vika and Linda Bull. Husband and wife team Atila and Karoline Kuti add violin, viola and cello, and the renowned recorder player Genevieve Lacey lends an exquisite performance to one track.
J Walker reflects on the recording process,
“My memories of making this album are largely of that simple joy, the act of playing music together, fusing one voice, three minds and six hands into one sinuous creature that knows and responds to every stretch and turn of the song. To be able to do that with not one but two Kellys just knocked me right out – a really pure experience that I’ll always remember.”
Dan Kelly adds,
“Underneath all the relationship stuff there is a nautical theme. Tides and such. Songs with nautical themes are good for musicians. You play together in a certain way. Elemental, rolling perhaps, a little quixotic with a touch of homesickness. Even though we recorded it in a hall, it doesn’t sound like a Ye Olde barn dance. It’s kind of modern, with a bit of backwoods glue holding it together.”
