The release arrives alongside a new song, Northern Rivers.
Image: Michael Hili.
Australian icon Paul Kelly had released a new compilation album, Rivers and Rain, which features the brand new single Northern Rivers. The love song is an ode to the Northern Rivers, bringing vivid lyricism that paints a lush portrait of the region and of falling in love.
“Water appears very often in my songs. 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.” Kelly shares of the compilation.
“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!”
Earlier this year, Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia announced they have secured the exclusive international rights to adapt Paul Kelly's seminal track, How to Make Gravy, into a Christmas film. Speech & Drama Pictures, helmed by screenwriter and director Nick Waterman and platinum selling, Aria Award winning musician and screenwriter Megan Washington, are set to work on the adaptation.
The beautiful Australian ballad takes on a conceptual nature, sharing the story of a prisoner named Joe who pens a letter to his brother Dan, whilst longing to be reunited with his family for the holiday season.
Rivers and Rain is out now!