Paul Kelly’s new song ‘Northern Rivers’ was written and recorded soon after residents in Northern New South Wales were cleaning up after devastated floods hit the area.
Kelly says, “It is a love song set in contrasting landscapes. I took it to the band and it came out really easily like they’d been playing it forever.”
The song is part of a new album ‘Rivers and Rain’, “Water appears very often in my songs,” he says.” I live on Port Philip Bay and when I’m home I go down to the sea several times a week if I can. When I’m traveling and visiting new cities, I always look for the water, be it a river, a lake, a canal, the sea or a swimming pool. If I were to make a compilation of all my ‘water’ songs the track list would be overflowing! So, for the second instalment in this series, I’ve decided to narrow the channel to Rivers and Rain. Songs to do with oceans and shores I’ll save for another time.”
“Rivers run through cities, run through wildernesses, and run through history. You can dream by a river. Court and picnic by a river. Swim or fish in a river. Sail or row or float down a river. Drown in a river.”
“In Australia, some rivers are dry or low for long periods then roar to life, sometimes dangerously, after certain storms. Rivers need rain. We all do. One of the great pleasures in life is lying in bed listening to the rain. Or reading a book in a nook inside as rain falls outside. I even like playing footy in the rain!”
“The first three songs of this compilation feature both rivers and rain, including new track Northern Rivers, recorded last year and previously unreleased. Letter In The Rain follows a lone wanderer and wonderer, haunted by memory. The River Song was written in a hotel room by The Seine in Paris at the time of the 2016 floods, the biggest in a hundred years. The twenty-one song set ends with the radioactive rain from the fallout of the Maralinga atomic bomb tests in South Australia during the fifties.”
“Along the way we have storms, floods, carved canyons, petrichor, reveries, hard scrabble, crossed lovers, blessed lovers, joy, hope and danger. Jump in!”
‘Rivers and Rain’ the album is streaming now.
RIVERS AND RAIN TRACKLISTING
Northern Rivers (New Track)
Letter In The Rain
The River Song
When A Woman Loves A Man
Petrichor
Pretty Bird Tree
Morning Storm
Smells Like Rain
Summer Rain
Pastures Of Plenty
Everything’s Turning To White
Midnight Rain
Life Is Fine
Pretty Place
Love Never Runs On Time
I Close My Eyes And Think Of You
Hasn’t It Rained
Smoke Under The Bridge
Gathering Storm
Moon River – Live with Neil Finn
Maralinga (rainy land)
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