Despite Paul Kelly having four “projects” since his last ‘Paul Kelly’ album ‘Nature’ in 2018, a new one with his crack team of musicians is on the way for 1 November 2024.
With Paul out touring in recent years for Red Hot Summer, he seems reminded of his band rock past with what is happening with ‘Taught By Experts’. “Looking back on what we’ve done with these songs, it’s really a band record,” Kelly says. “That made me reflect on the longevity of the band, this squad. Peter Luscombe (drums) has been with me for more than 30 years, Bill McDonald (bass) and Dan Kelly (guitar) for 20. Even the newbies Cameron Bruce (keys) and Ash Naylor (guitar) have been with me since 2007. Our philosophy is eclectic, we want to make each song different to the last. I just love the band and that when I take a new song to them it can take on a completely new life.”
Kelly has given us the new song ‘’Taught By Experts’ as a preview of what is to come. The song has been kicking around for awhile. “I have been circling that song for years,” Kelly says. “We thought we should try it with a chiming electric guitar part, and when we did that, we knew that was it.”
Steve Gordon tells Noise11.com ‘Taught By Experts’ is a very OLD Paul Kelly song. “It’s on the 1999 bluegrass album “Smoke”, that he did with Uncle Bill – and I remember recording an acoustic version with a few of the Coloured Girls, in a radio studio here in Perth, around 10 years before that. He wanted Michael Barclay to sing it that day but he wouldn’t – he didn’t like it, I think”.
Paul says the theme of the album didn’t become evident until halfway through the recording. “I never know what the themes are until I am in the middle of doing a record,” Kelly says. “I don’t set out with an album in mind. Over the past 20 years I just get the band together and put down a batch of songs. I put them in what I call my odd-socks drawer on the computer and as they accumulate I see which ones work together.”
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