HOPEFUL songs.
Angry songs. Songs of love: lost, found, lusted after, hoped for. Songs of regret.
Bluegrass songs. A song based on lines from the Old Testament. Howling rock songs.
One about Ned Kelly that might have been written 100 years ago. An instrumental
surf song. One about the greatest Australian bowler of them all, to go with the
one about the greatest cricketer of them all. Songs to play by the campfire, to
dance to at parties. Songs to play at births, weddings, funerals, and all the
times between.
It's all there in the songs of Paul Kelly.
Imagine
a new visitor to Australia looking to get a flavour of the country and its people.
The perfect place to start is with the music of one of the world's great songwriters,
the man who has chronicled our country's beauty and scars and desires as well
as the personal insights which know no borders in an extraordinary songwriting
career that now spans more than 30 years.
In 1997, Kelly released the
'Songs from the South', a dazzling collection assembling songs that had already
lodged deep in the Australian soundtrack, from 'Before Too Long' and 'From St
Kilda to King Cross' to 'When I First Met Your Ma', 'To Her Door' and 'How to
Make Gravy'.
Now comes 'Songs from the South Vol 2', a new 20-track collection
which dips into the past 10 years of Kelly's life. Remarkably for a songwriter
going from his early 40s to his early 50s, this period has been just as creative
and even more adventurous than the first.
At an age when many songwriters
struggle to keep the juices flowing, the songs keep pouring from Kelly as he continues
to explore fresh musical terrain, from classic albums recorded with his band,
The Boon Companions, to acoustic bluegrass (with Uncle Bill on Smoke and the Storm
Water Boys on Foggy Highway), the feelgood collaboration bands Professor Ratbaggy
and The Stardust Five and the massive Paul Kelly A-Z concert project, subsequently
released online at Kelly's website.
The songs on Vol 2 range from the
1998 album 'Words and Music' to last year's 'Stolen Apples', and confirms that
Kelly is still writing songs as powerful as anything he did in his 20s.
'Nothing
On My Mind', from 'Words and Music', is taut and terse as Kelly claims: ``Fighting
a bull's one thing, fighting bullshit's another.'' That sits beside the sweet
pop-rock of 'I'll Be Your Lover' and the sunny flavours of 'Professor Ratbaggy's
Love Letter'.
Kelly's skills as a solo troubadour are highlighted on Vol
2 with the version of 'Every F**king City', recorded live at The Continental in
Melbourne circa 1999. It's one of Kelly's best-loved story songs about a relationship
on the rocks while travelling in Europe, featuring the classic observation on
'La Vida Loca', ``I can't believe I'm dancing to this crap but I'm a chance here.''
Kelly's attraction to old-time music comes to the fore on the classic 'Our
Sunshine', about another famous Kelly in Australian popular culture, outlaw Ned.
And his willingness to explore different types of music is underlined by the
classic '60s surf sound of the instrumental 'Gunnamatta' from 'Ways and Means'.
Few songwriters get inside the shades of heartbreak as well as Kelly, aching
with regret on 'If I Could Start Today Again (``Please give me back the day/And
I won't say the things I said or do that thing I did'') and recalling a poignant
childhood scene from the back seat of the car on 'They Thought I Was Asleep'.
Some of these songs are as serious as can be, like the story from the terrorist's
point of view on 'God Told Me To', and others are jaunty and light-hearted, like
Shane Warne, the companion piece to his earlier sporting ballad Bradman, with
its succinct description of cricket's ball of the century:``Mike Gatting looked
up struck as dumb as a post/He walked from the crease like he'd just seen a ghost/Shane
Warne's first Ashes delivery.''
Songs like these are evidence that writers
of Kelly's talent don't let the fire burn out. In fact, they learn knew tricks
on how to keep the flame burning. And it's as bright as ever across the past 10
years of music on 'Songs From the South Vol 2'.
It's the first release
in a series of CD reissues of every Kelly album under the EMI banner.
'Songs
from the South Vols 1 & 2' are available now through EMI.
