Good Gravy! Paul Kelly Has A Christmas Album Coming Out This Year

Bonafide legend of the Aus music landscape Paul Kelly has announced he's releasing a new collection of yuletide songs just in time for Christmas 2021.

Paul Kelly's Christmas Train is a new collaborative effort with Kelly at the helm, along with a little help from the likes of Kate Miller-Heidke, Marlon Williams, Vika & Linda, Waleed Aly and tons more. Kelly and co will deliver a 22-track album of festive classics, including a new version of his own Christmas megahit, How To Make Gravy.

“I’ve always been interested in Christmas songs and the variety of them,” Kelly said of the new project. 

“There is a double-edged sword to Christmas music because every year it is everywhere, pumped to you in supermarkets and malls. There is a lot of schlock but on the other hand there are so many great Christmas songs and so much to explore. I’ve chosen songs I love, which led me often to wander off the well-worn path, then chosen singers I thought best suited to them.”

The songwriter said that the holiday season is one close to his heart, noting of his own experiences growing up, "We had Advent, the month long build-up to Christmas. There was a small crib in one of the fireplaces with a pile of straw beside it. Every time you did something good or denied yourself something you would secretly put straw in the crib so it would be filled by Christmas, when a statuette of the baby Jesus would miraculously appear in the crib." 

He continued, "The statues of the Three Wise Men started a long way off in another part of the house, secretly moving every night along mantelpieces so they would arrive at the crib for the Epiphany on January 6. That was all part of Christmas for us. It was fun and mysterious and magical."

Paul Kelly's Christmas Train is due out 19 November and is available for preorder now. Check out the trailer for the new album below: