When it comes to great and respected Australian music artists, they don’t get much greater or more respected than Paul Kelly.
He’s a fixture of our national music culture, his songs forming panoramic snapshots of an Australia that exists only in the notes and lyrics he weaves together so deftly. This November and December, Paul takes his new album ‘Life Is Fine’ out on a national tour, including two shows in Perth.
‘Life Is Fine’ is Paul’s 23rd studio album. The deliberately ambiguous title is simultaneously affirmative and also a sly nod to the various interpretations of the word ‘fine’. Paul has described the album as being about “never knowing what’s around the corner” and the title track’s lyrics come from the poem ‘Life Is Fine’ by American poet Langston Hughes.
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The album is also his first number one in a career spanning nearly forty years and ten ARIA Awards. It’s being called one of his strongest and most evocative albums yet and features the vocals of Vika and Linda Bull on the tracks ‘My Man’s Got A Cold’ and ‘Don’t Explain’ respectively.
In an interview with Nick Buckley published on 3 November via Broadsheet, Paul says that little has changed about his songwriting process and how much of his creativity can stem from boredom. “I want to be surprised,” he says. “Songwriting is mostly being bored. Like all writers I have my own habits and grooves and patterns and fight to break them. Most of the time writing for me is boring myself until I surprise myself.
“You can’t force it, you have to turn up and do the work and play your instrument and make a sound with your mouth. But then the best songs come at you completely sideways, when you are working on something else, and then you just chase it and chase it until you get it, you hunt it down.”
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Paul’s history as a singer-songwriter and musician is deeply entwined with the development of Australian music and like Jimmy Barnes or Men At Work, he is ubiquitous to nearly every Aussie who’s listened to a radio or walked into a pub during the past four decades.
So universally loved is Paul Kelly, he can go from his own headline shows, to playing a Christmas show – with Gang Of Youths, Meg Mac and Gretta Ray – to a Sydney Opera House show that will be live streamed by Double J, and no one bats an eyelid or says ‘Paul who?’.
Perth will bask in the Paul Kelly live experience when he performs two shows as part of the ‘Life Is Fine’ national tour at Kings Park in November.
Paul Kelly Tour Dates
Fri 17 Nov - Botanical Gardens (Melbourne)Sat 18 Nov - Mona Foma Gardens (Hobart)
19-20 Nov - Sydney Opera House
22-23 Nov - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
25-26 Nov - Kings Park (Perth)
