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PAUL KELLY
shares new video for
‘HOW TO MAKE GRAVY’

WATCH HERE

‘HOW TO MAKE GRAVY’ RE-RECORDED 25 YEARS AFTER IT’S INITIAL RELEASE
TAKEN FROM THE NEW ALBUM ‘PAUL KELLY’S CHRISTMAS TRAIN’

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD HERE

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Photo Credit: Michael Hili

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“For the vast majority of Australian families, the music of Paul Kelly has always been synonymous with Christmas. On this album, he’s tied a bow on it for us. It’s not just the gravy” – THE BETOOTA ADVOCATE

“One way to appreciate Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train is to examine How To Make Gravy. HTMG distils the modern Australian Christmas experience. There’s food built for another hemisphere, patriarchs and matriarchs, bust ups and blow outs, cousins, aunties and uncles, new boyfriends, new girlfriends – outsiders that bring with them their brand of Christmas. The secular improbably collides with the sacred. It is a chaotic wonder. And from Joe’s perspective – the outside looking in – that chaos is nothing short of divine. Like HTMG, Christmas Train is home to a rambling cast of characters. All are welcome and all are exalted. We’re lucky to have Paul Kelly at the head of the table.” – ALEXANDER GOW

SONGWRITER AND PODCAST PRODUCER AT ONE GUITAR, 7AM & THE CULTURE.

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“…flour, salt, a little red wine, and don’t forget a dollop of tomato sauce.” – it could be the most well-known recipe in Australia. Paul Kelly’s ‘How to Make Gravy’ has become synonymous with Christmas gatherings around the nation – a soundtrack to families coming together, and those kept apart, during the festive season.

Written as a letter from prison at Christmas time on the “21st of December”, ‘How To Make Gravy’ was first recorded in 1996 after it was originally commissioned by Lindsay Field for a various artists Christmas charity record to raise money for the Salvation Army. The song has grown in such popularity since it was recorded 25 years ago that every year, the 21st of December has been unofficially dubbed as “Gravy Day” by fans.

Of the new recording, which features on Kelly’s latest album, the #2 ARIA charting “Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train”, Paul Kelly explains “The original How To Make Gravy came out 25 years ago and I must have played it now thousands and thousands of times. It’s a staple in our set. The band and I thought it would be worthwhile putting our current version to tape. The way we play the song has evolved over the years but not that much. We’ve always kept the crucial slide riff, originally played by Spencer P Jones, and on this recording by Ashley Naylor. Playing this song is like going on a ride. Once you’re on it, it just takes off! Note for music nerds: Peter Luscombe plays drums on both versions.”

“The music video has been made by Siân Darling, lovingly and skilfully, with clips sourced from fans. It is a thing of wonder, sadness and joy.” Says Kelly of the video which features cameos by Brian Nankervis with his family and Gretta Ray.

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Photo Credit: Michael Hili

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Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train is an extraordinary 22-song double album which travels across the centuries, from a Latin hymn to well-known carols, from a traditional Irish folk ballad to songs with an unmistakable local flavour, and a sparkling new version of one of the greatest Australian Christmas songs of them all, Kelly’s own How to Make Gravy recorded 25 years after it initial release. Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train is out now through EMI Music and is available HERE now. Click HERE for exclusive Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train merchandise from Paul Kelly’s store.

The sacred and the secular, the ancient and modern, all carefully woven into a collection destined to become a part of Australian Christmases for many years to come. Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train is delivered by Kelly and his band with a big cast of Christmas helpers including vocalists Marlon Williams, Waleed Aly, Lior, Emma Donovan, Kasey Chambers, Kate Miller-Heidke, Vika & Linda Bull, Alice Keath, Sime Nugent, Alma Zygier, Emily Lubitz, Jess Hitchcock and Dhungala Children’s Choir, and contributions from the Kelly clan including nephew and band-mate Dan, siblings Mary-Jo and Tony and Paul’s daughters Maddy and Memphis Kelly.

WATCH THE ALBUM TRAILER HERE

Christmas played a big part in Kelly’s childhood, growing up in a large Catholic family in Adelaide. “We had Advent, the month long build-up to Christmas. There was a small crib in one of the fireplaces with a pile of straw beside it. Every time you did something good or denied yourself something you would secretly put straw in the crib so it would be filled by Christmas, when a statuette of the baby Jesus would miraculously appear in the crib. The statues of the Three Wise Men started a long way off in another part of the house, secretly moving every night along mantelpieces so they would arrive at the crib for the Epiphany on January 6. That was all part of Christmas for us. It was fun and mysterious and magical.

Kelly says: “There were so many songs I wanted to have on there. Having the wider frame for this album allowed me to have the songs talking to each other, the way that Arthur McBride has echoes in the Brazilian song In the Hot Sun of a Christmas Day. There is a Hebrew hymn, an Arabic poem, folk songs, classical songs, rock songs. Then the fun, and the challenge, is to get all those elements to work together.”

Anyone who has followed Paul Kelly knows the depth and detail that makes his work so enduring. You didn’t expect anything less from a Paul Kelly Christmas record, did you?

PAUL KELLY’S CHRISTMAS TRAIN OUT NOW THROUGH EMI MUSIC.

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CHRISTMAS TRAIN
Track listing
(1CD, 2LP):

1. Nativity
2. Silent Night w/ Alice Keath & Sime Nugent
3. Swing Around The Sun
4.  Christmas
5.   Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) w/ Linda Bull
6.  Little Drummer Boy
7.  Arthur McBride
8. The Virgin Mary Had One Son w/ Emma Donovan
9.  Tapu te Pō (O Holy Night) w/ Marlon Williams & Dhungala Children’s Choir
10.  Shalom Aleichem w/ Lior, Alice Keath, Emily Lubitz
11. The Oxen
12.  The Friendly Beasts w/ Kasey Chambers & Dan Kelly
13.  Three Drovers w/ Alice Keath & Sime Nugent
14.  Christmas Must Be Tonight
15.  Surah Maryam w/ Waleed Aly
16.  Coventry Carol w/ Kate Miller-Heidke, Jess Hitchcock, Alice Keath & Marlon Williams
17. In The Hot Sun Of A Christmas Day
18.  How To Make Gravy
19.  Christmas Train w/ Vika Bull
20.  Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
21. Intonent Hodie w/ Alice Keath
22.  What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? w/ Alma Zygier

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AMNPLIFY – DB