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Ghost Canyon

Title - Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train [2LP]
Artist - Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly’s first Christmas album is an extraordinary 22-song double collection that travels across the centuries, from a Latin hymn to well-known carols, from a traditional Irish folk ballad to new Kelly music written for Christmas poems.

There are songs with an unmistakable local flavor like Three Drovers and Swing Around the Sun, and a sparkling new version of one of the greatest Australian Christmas songs of them all, Kelly’s own How to Make Gravy.

The album is delivered by Kelly and his band with a big cast of Christmas helpers including vocalists Vika and Linda Bull, Marlon Williams, Kasey Chambers, Alice Keath, Emily Lubitz, Lior and Emma Donovan, with contributions from the Kelly clan.

The writer, radio and TV presenter Waleed Aly also makes an appearance, reading verses from The Qur’an that tell the story of Mary and Jesus.

The album also finds new ways to explore Christmas favorites too, with a Hawaiian flavor for Silent Night and an astonishing performance by Marlon Williams singing Tapu Te Pō (O Holy Night) in the Māori languge.

Folk, classical, soul, carols and hymns, rock and roll. Get ready for an album that’s going to become a part of celebrating Christmas for many years to come.

Side A:
1. Nativity
2. Silent Night (ft. Alice Keath, Sime Nugent)
3. Swing Around The Sun
4. Christmas
5. Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) (ft. Linda Bull)
6. Little Drummer Boy

This truly beautifully crafted new Holiday album opens on a stirring Nativity and truly harmonious Silent Night (featuring Alice Keath and Sime Nugent), then we get an aptly-titled Swing Around The Sun, a flashback rocker is up next in Christmas, and that is in turn followed by a luxuriously-crafted Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) (featuring wonderful vocals from Linda Bull), and a dutiful Little Drummer Boy rounds out the first side.

Side B:
7. Arthur McBride
8. The Virgin Mary Had One Son (ft. Emma Donovan)
9. Tapu te Pō (O Holy Night) (ft. Marlon Williams, The Dhungala Children’s Choir)
10. Shalom Aleichem (ft. Lior, Alice Keath, Emily Lubitz)
11. The Oxen

The storytelling within Arthur McBride is up next and is backed by the low slung, veritably Gospelized blues-soul of The Virgin Mary Had One Son (featuring lush vocals from Emma Donovan), and then we are given a most incredible Tapu te Pō (O Holy Night) (featuring Marlon Williams and The Dhungala Children’s Choir), the side rounding out on a mesmerizing Shalom Aleichem (featuring Lior, Alice Keath, and Emily Lubitz) and then a joyous hipsway comes to the fore on The Oxen.

Side C:
12. The Friendly Beasts (ft. Kasey Chambers, Dan Kelly)
13. Three Drovers (ft. Alice Keath, Sime Nugent)
14. Christmas Must Be Tonight
15. Surah Maryam (ft. Waleed Aly)
16. Coventry Carol (ft. Kate Miller-Heidke, Jess Hitchcock, Alice Keath, Marlon Williams)
17. In The Hot Sun Of A Christmas Day

The third side opens on the jaunty tale spun within The Friendly Beasts (featuring the Americana-Folk vocals from Kasey Chambers and Dan Kelly) and the verily Celtic-imbued Three Drovers (featuring Alice Keath and Sime Nugent) and then we are brought the pleasing tones and melodies within the fiddle-embed Christmas Must Be Tonight, the spoken word Surah Maryam (featuring Australian journalist Waleed Aly), the side rounding out on the crystalline Coventry Carol (featuring Kate Miller-Heidke, Jess Hitchcock, Alice Keath, and Marlon Williams), and the Dylan-esque In The Hot Sun Of A Christmas Day.

Side D:
18. How To Make Gravy
19. Christmas Train (ft. Vika Bull)
20. Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
21. Intonent Hodie (ft. Alice Keath)
22. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? (ft. Alma Zygier)

The forth side opens on the twanging guitar of the gentle rocker How To Make Gravy and an absolute belter of a foot to the pedal rocker in the form of the Vika Bull vocalized Christmas Train, and that is followed by the compassionately sculptured Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing, the Choir-like hamnonization of Intonent Hodie (featuring Alice Keath), the recording coming to a close with jazz vocalist Alma Zygier bringing us the soft, sultry, playful even What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?

Kelly says: “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.”

Paul Kelly (feat. Alice Keath) - Maybe This Christmas (Official Video) [Official Video]

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? - Alma Zygier and Paul Kelly [Official Video]

Paul Kelly’s Christmas Train - Official Album Trailer

Official Purchase Links

Official Website

Paul Kelly @ Instagram

Paul Kelly @ YouTube

Paul Kelly @ Facebook

Paul Kelly @ Twitter





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