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New album
‘FORTY DAYS’
released today

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Since late March Paul Kelly has performed and posted a series of songs and poems on his social pages, filming them himself on his phone at home. Most of the pieces are by other writers and many touch on themes related to the lockdown – home cooking, dry pubs, hope, insomnia, separation – while others commemorate singers and poets  – Bill Withers, John Prine and Bruce Dawe – who have left us recently.

Paul says, “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.) 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.”

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The track listing for
‘FORTY DAYS’
ia as follows:

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

Forty Days is available now to stream now.

Next week, Paul will be announcing a brand new studio album.

Stay tuned for more information to come.

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Follow PAUL KELLY
Website – Facebook – Twitter

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AMNPLIFY – DB