STACK #181 Nov 2019

MUSIC FEATURE

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that he doesn’t see the disciplines (music and literature) as totally discrete. “I love it – I love finding connections between things,” he says. “And I think part of the thrill of writing songs is when you get maybe two ideas, or two images, or two lines that seem separate at first, but they suddenly connect and then jump into the same song. For me, writing is all about those kinds of connections.” Kelly says putting other people's words to music is a “risky business”. He describes a time he tried to adapt a poem by the celebrated American poet Robert Frost (1874 - 1963) to music, and was promptly kaiboshed by the writer’s estate: “The story goes he once went to a musical night of people putting his poems to music, and he hated it,” Kelly laughs. “As is

PAUL KELLY INTERVIEW As our Great Southern Land's most revered

any tracks from Kelly’s other album of 2019, Thirteen Ways To Look At Birds – but it’s worth noting here that the record just won the early- announced 2019 ARIA Award for Best Classical Album, and employs a similar approach to lyrics). Nature ’s lyrics utilise some of Kelly’s favourite poetry – a medium for which Kelly has held a great and abiding love for many years – and it's an approach he's

A lthough the photograph was snapped more than 50 years ago, the image on the front of Songs FromThe South: Hits 1985 - 2019 is clearly and undeniably a young Paul Kelly; gentle but intense brown eyes, pointy ears, dignified chin, and something both wise and cheeky behind the grin. However Kelly is quick to point out the biggest difference between his twelve-year-old mug and the songwriter gears up for the release of his third record of Greatest Hits, he discusses how words and music interlace within his world. Words Zoë Radas

employed before, most notably with his Shakespeare exploration Seven Sonnets and a Song (2016) and the theatre soundtrack Conversations

With Ghosts (2013). “I’ve read poetry since I was a teenager, and it’s always been something that has bled into my songs,” he says, attesting

one he wears today: “My nose was straight then, but after that it got broken playing cricket – and

it’s still pretty crooked these days,” he smiles. The tracks on the

BRASSY BOY Kelly was first attracted to the trumpet when he discovered that his sister’s boyfriend – a young man he looked up to – played the instrument. “He brought around some old jazz records: Louie Armstrong and the Hot Five, and Kelly Ball, Al Hurt. So I played trumpet all through high school – we had a school orchestra. Then I left school and didn’t play it any more. I passed it off to my younger brother, Tony, and then it went on from him to my niece Sophia, my sister’s daughter. I don’t know where the trumpet is now – probably at the back of a cupboard somewhere.”

Songs FromThe South collection span a career filled with myriad hits, collaborations, and forays into the other arenas of art – including his album of this

year, Nature , which debuted at #1 and is currently nominated for three awards at the ARIAs later this month. (The collection doesn’t include

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NOVEMBER 2019

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