Album Review: Paul Kelly & Charlie Owen - Death's Dateless Night

Somewhat strangely, Australian rock veterans Paul Kelly and Charlie Owen had never made an album together until now.

But a shared bereavement found them conceiving the union en route to a funeral and ultimately recording a clutch of songs that they'd played at funerals over the years to pay their respects to passed friends and help those left behind cope with their loss.

Recorded by Machine Translations' J Walker, it's a sombre affair without being mired in sadness, Kelly's expressive voice perfect in this construct and offset seamlessly by Owen's symbiotic sensitivity on guitar, synth, lap steel, dobro and piano. Townes Van Zandt's To Live Is To Fly soars in these wonderful hands, while Leonard Cohen's Bird On The Wire drips with gravitas and Cole Porter's Don't Fence Me In tugs heartstrings with its wide-skied simplicity (sweet vocals from Kelly's daughters Maddy and Memphis adding a welcome feminine touch, as they do on the beautiful rendering of The Beatles' classic Let It Be). Kelly's own Nukkanya proves short but sweet, while old jazz-blues standard Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor (recorded by Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch among countless others) also shines in its stark minimalism.

The collection closes with Hank Williams' Angel Of Death - the most direct mortality treatise here - which hammers home the solemnity of the collection and ties it all together wonderfully. A beautiful way to contemplate our inevitable demise.