Be he solo or in collaboration with a multitude of performing partners over the many years, Paul Kelly has established himself as one of Australia’s finest singer/songwriters. His latest finds him dipping back into the collaborative pool once more with a number of guests on his latest, The Merri Soul Sessions whose contents have been assembled into a special, limited to 1,000, 7″ double A-side singles box. And as the headline above attests, we have one box set to give away to one of you.
“Following the recent releases of his groundbreaking song cycles, Spring and Fall and Conversations With Ghosts, Australian troubadour Paul Kelly is pleased to announce another innovative chapter in his long-standing career. In the dawn of last year, he assembled his touring band and an exciting group of singers that included Clairy Browne, Vika and Linda Bull, Dan Sultan, and Kira Puru to record a set of new songs as well as one old classic.
Over an exhilarating two-week period, the tracks were performed live at Soundpark Studios in Northcote, Melbourne. Dubbed The Merri Soul Sessions, the music is being made available via PledgeMusic as a very “limited edition” series of four 7” vinyl singles (double A-side). Each vinyl single can be bought individually or combined in a limited-edition box set of which only 1,000 will be manufactured. More details are here.
Kelly explains the evolution of the Sessions: ‘In recent years doing band shows with Vika and Linda, Vika had been singing ‘Sweet Guy,’ an old song of mine, and bringing the house down each time. I was keen to record her version and thought, naturally, that if we were going into the studio we should try and get some other songs on tape as well.
I had a song in mind for Linda. I wrote a couple of songs with Dan Sultan that had a soul kind of feeling. And a couple of recent songs of mine, as yet unrecorded, came back into view. They seemed to fit well with the others. Having half a dozen songs now that were talking to each other helped me write a couple more. This is how it goes. One thing leads to another. You never quite know what’s happening ’til you’re in the middle of it.’
‘I started to imagine a soul revue type record performed live in the studio with a variety of singers and the one band. “I’d fallen in love with Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes’ ‘Love Letter,’ the sound of it as well as the song, so invited Clairy and the producer of that record, Steve Schram, to get involved.
I’d seen Kira Puru perform ‘One Eye Open’ live on YouTube and thought she might be the one to nail ‘I Don’t Know What I’d Do,’ a song left off Spring and Fall because I couldn’t sing it myself yet. It needed a torch singer who could balance light and dark. Plus, I loved the way she sang with a big glass of red wine never out of her hand.
She, Clairy and Steve, thankfully, all said yes. Meanwhile Vika and Linda had started singing live the two songs Dan and I had written. The stew was simmering on the stove…”
Enter to win Paul Kelly’s Merri Soul Sessions 7″ singles box set by citing in the comments below your favorite collaborative recording project that resides among the records on your shelves. We’ll choose one insightful commenter with the requisite team spirit—and a North American mailing address—as our winner one week from today, February 5, 2015. Our winner will be notified directly via email.
