Paul Kelly has condensed the words of William Shakespeare into the content for his next album ‘Seven Sonnets & A Song’.
Kelly is the proud owner of a 20kg three volume publication of ‘Collected Works of William Shakespeare’, a collection that has given him inspiration over his 30 years in the biz.
As one of Australia’s most prolific lyricists Paul says, “Just about anything you want to say, Shakespeare’s said it already.”
‘Seven Sonnets & A Song’ features Paul singing lead vocals on 6 of Shakespeare’s sonnets and a song from Twelfth Night. The only non-Shakespearian piece is ‘My True Love Hath My Heart’, written by his contemporary Sir Philip Sidney and sung here by Vika Bull. The record will be available digitally and as a 10” vinyl.
The sonnets were recorded in various studios over the last 18 months. Musicians performing on them include Lucky Oceans and Alice Keath, as well as members of Paul’s band, Peter Luscombe, Bill McDonald, Ash Naylor, Cameron Bruce, and Vika and Linda Bull.
To be revealed over the coming month will be the music and videos for ‘Sonnet 73’ by Sunny Leunig, ‘Sonnet 18’ by Lucy Dyson and ‘My True Love Hath My Heart’ by Andy Doherty.
The record will be available to download from midnight Greenwich Mean Time as April 22 ticks over to April 23rd, the day of Shakespeare’s death 400 years ago.
It will be launched with live appearances by Paul on April 23rd at the State Library of NSW in conjunction with Sydney Writers’ Festival and Bell Shakespeare and at The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Paul will also be speaking about Shakespeare and performing several sonnets at Sydney Writers’ Festival on Monday, May 16. Overseas performances will follow on from that.
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