Month: September 2024

Paul Kelly announced his 29th studio album ‘Fever Longing Still’ will be released on 1 November 2024
‘Houndstooth Dress’ is the third and final single to be released ahead of the album
Paul talks ‘Houndstooth Dress’: “There have been many songs over the years based on accessories and apparel – Raspberry Beret, Blue Jean Baby, These Boots Are Made for Walking, Famous Blue Raincoat, Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, Dirty Jeans, Short Skirt/Long Jacket and a whole lot more. My old song Winter Coat belongs to this venerable genre. I think of Houndstooth Dress as the latest in this long line. I wrote it just before going into the studio so threw it to the band without having had a chance to rehearse. Commandeered the piano and taught it to them on the go. Only two chords. In a minor key but not a minor feeling. We got it on the first take as you can hear from the chat at the start.”
‘Houndstooth Dress’ follows first single ‘Taught By Experts’ – a song which Kelly originally recorded as blue grass on his 1999 album ‘Smoke’ with Uncle Bill and now recorded with full band, seamlessly fitting into Paul Kelly’s timeless cannon of classics. And ‘Going To The River With Dad’, a song inspired by the opening essay of Noel Pearson’s book ‘Mission’.
Paul Kelly’s last album was his celebration of all things Christmas with ‘Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train’, a #1 ARIA Album. His last album of new material was 2018’s ARIA Award winning and #1 album ‘Nature’
‘Fever Longing Still’, a phrase taken from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147, has a clear theme running through each song. Love. Kelly explains: “For close to fifty years I’ve written mostly love songs. I never know what I’m doing until I’m in the middle of it but, looking back, it seems this record is an attempt to present all those kinds of love songs into one forty minute album. Urgent love, patient love, happy love, sad love, deluded love, clear-eyed love, complicated love, the beginning of love, the end of love; love gone wrong, love pretty right, love of clan, love between parents and children, love of oblivion, love of pain, love of revenge.”

AUSTRALIA’S FAVORITE SINGER-SONGWRITER PAUL KELLY ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM FEVER LONGING STILL OUT NOVEMBER 1 ON GAWD AGGIE/COOKING VINYL

For his latest album, Fever Longing Still, Paul Kelly is focused on the familiar topic of love – the fire of love, the pain of love, love for the family, and love of a memory and place. This topic has been at the core of many of his most beloved songs throughout his nearly five-decade career. Fever Longing Still is Kelly’s 29th studio album and will be released November 1st on Gawd Aggie/Cooking Vinyl.

Taken from a line in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147, Fever Longing Still is Kelly’s first set of new original material since 2018’s Nature . The album’s first single, “All Those Smiling Faces” is an emotional and vivid exploration of recollection, like peering inside the memories in a photo album. In the song, Kelly states “Down the years the family face / Keeps jumping around from place to place / A look, a shape, a nose, an eye / That everlasting thing that’s never gonna die.”

Fever Longing Still is an album driven by a band in peak form. “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. Pater 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.” He continues, “Our philosophy is eclectic; we want to make each song different from the last.”