Paul Kelly has been astoundingly prolific over the past couple of years, and now he’s given fans the ultimate treat – a completely new album released out of nowhere.
Forty Days is comprised of a bunch of songs and poems that Kelly performed on social media over the past few weeks that all have themes pertaining to lockdown. Other songs are covers honouring legends that have recently passed, like Bill Withers and John Prine.
“I noticed that the recordings spanned a period of roughly forty days and was aware that ‘forty days’ in
Italian is ‘quaranta giorni’, the origin of our word ‘quarantine’ (during the Black Death in Europe from the 14th century onwards ships were required to be isolated for forty days before passengers and crew could go ashore.)” Kelly said in a press statement.
“So I had the videos converted and edited to audio files to make a kind of document. The recordings are rough and ready but, to paraphrase George Jones, ‘Ragged but right is ok with me.’ I was never much of a hi-fi guy anyway. I’m sending this little ship out into the world with the hope that it finds many happy harbours.”
If that wasn’t enough PK for you, he is also set to announce a brand new studio album next week so stay tuned to Music Feeds for all that info. Catch the tracklist for ‘Forty Days’ here below.
‘Forty Days’ Tracklist
1. Pub With No Beer – Gordon Noel Parsons
2. September 1, 1939 (extract) – W H Auden
3. Hey Good Lookin' – Hank Williams
4. You and Sarajevo – Bruce Dawe
5. Grandma's Hands – Bill Withers
6. Paradise – John Prine
7. Hope Is The Thing With Feathers – Emily Dickinson
8. Everything is Plundered – Anna Akhmatova
9. Passed Over – Paul Kelly
10. Thoughts In The Middle Of The Night – Paul Kelly
11. Four A.M. – Wislawa Szymborska
12. Sonnet 73 – Paul Kelly / William Shakespeare
13. Quarantine – Eavan Boland
14. My Island Home – Neil Murray
15. Stumbling Block – Paul Kelly
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Stream or download ‘Forty Days’ here and watch the aforementioned videos here.
