Australian songwriting treasure Paul Kelly is about to release Spring and Fall - his first new album in close to 5 years. Due date for Kelly’s 19th record is October 19th.

Kelly has had moderate worldwide success throughout the decades, fronting the Dots, the Coloured Girls, The Messengers, the Boon Companions and the Stormwater Boys, but it is in his native Australia that Kelly has achieved near-kingly status with 7 gold albums and one platinum – Under the Sun.

Spring and Fall (which alludes movement as well as seasons) was recorded in an old church in Gippsland, Australia and continues to mine Kelly’s characteristic perspective on love. The songwriter intentionally crafted the album as an interlocking cycles of songs in an attempt listeners to appreciate the concept as a full album instead of a bunch of individual song downloads.

Noticing that people are listening to music more and more now in a grazing kind of way… picking a song here and a song there, spurred me on to try to make a record that would take a stand on behalf of the album. I’m a music grazer with the best of them but there is still a deep satisfaction in encountering a set of songs that unfolds and demands to be heard in its entirety.

Here’s a few songs to preview…

You can buy Spring and Fall and the rest of the Paul Kelly catalog in the Rock Cellar record store HERE.

Meanwhile, enjoy a recent live version of Paul performing one of his faves Dumb Things:

and another older song, Everything’s Turning to White, based on the Raymond Carver short story So Much Water So Close to Home…

What Others Say About Songwriter/Musician Paul Kelly:

“I am humbled… a great songwriter.” –Lucinda Williams

“There is something unique and powerful about the way Kelly mixes up everyday detail with the big issues of life, death, love and struggle — not a trace of pretense or fakery in there.” –Neil Finn/Crowded House

“One of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise.” –David Fricke; Rolling Stone

“If I was only allowed to listen to one artist for the rest of my life, I would choose Paul Kelly.” –Kasey Chambers

Kelly is currently playing selected dates in his native Australia and is due to play the U.S. starting in 2013, with 50+ dates planned including Seattle, Boulder, San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Minneapolis, Park City, NYC, Washington, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. For more tour information go HERE.

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