''The Merri Soul Sessions'' or ''Paul Kelly Presents: The Merri Soul Sessions'' is the twentieth studio album by Australian musician, Paul Kelly, which was issued on 12 December 2014 on his own label, Gawdaggie Records, and distributed by

Universal Music Australia Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd. (UMA) is the largest Australian music corporation. It is a division of the Universal Music Group. Universal Music Australia's corporate headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia. Labels Universal Musi ...

. Kelly provided lead vocals on two of its eleven tracks, the rest featured vocals by either Clairy Browne, sisters

Vika and Linda Bull Vika and Linda, also known as Vika and Linda Bull, are an Australian vocal duo consisting of Vika Susan Bull (born 1966) and her younger sister, Linda Rose Bull . They came to prominence after singing backing vocals in Joe Camilleri's band The ...

Kira Puru Kira Puru is a gender-fluid Australian musician. She is of Maori descent, her father being from the Tainui tribe, and grew up in Cardiff, New South Wales, near Newcastle. Puru has been described as "Señorita, swagger and a troublemaker" by Tr ...

, or

Dan Sultan Daniel Leo Sultan (born 1983) is an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, actor and author. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 he won ARIA Award for Best Male Artist, Best Male Artist and ARIA Award for Best Blues and Root ...

. The album debuted at No. 17 on the

ARIA Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

Background

''The Merri Soul Sessions'' is the twentieth studio album by Australian musician, Paul Kelly, which was issued on 12 December 2014 on his own label, Gawdaggie Records, and distributed by

. Kelly had developed the concept after hearing

Vika Bull Vika and Linda, also known as Vika and Linda Bull, are an Australian vocal duo consisting of Vika Susan Bull (born 1966) and her younger sister, Linda Rose Bull . They came to prominence after singing backing vocals in Joe Camilleri's band The ...

sing lead vocals on her live version of his song, "

Sweet Guy "Sweet Guy" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Messengers released in June 1989 as the lead single from the studio album, ''So Much Water So Close to Home''. The song was written by Kelly – his first from a woman's point of v ...

" – originally released as a single in June 1989 – during touring as a backing singer in his group. For the album Kelly provided lead vocals on two tracks and invited various vocalists to sing lead on the other nine of eleven tracks. Tracks feature lead vocals by Vika Bull, Linda Bull (Vika's sister), Clairy Browne, Kira Puru or

. The album was recorded live-in-the-studio in Northcote, with Kelly co-producing with Steve Schram (Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes), alongside the

Merri Creek The Merri Creek is a waterway in southern parts of Victoria, Australia, which flows through the northern suburbs of Northcote. It begins near Wallan north of Melbourne and flows south for 70 km until it joins the Yarra River at Dights Fa ...

, which gave the album its name. Kelly explained his concept to ''Australian Musician''s junocreative, "I started to imagine a soul revue type record performed live in the studio with a variety of singers and the one band." Prior to the album's appearance Kelly released four double A-sided 7" vinyl singles, "The Merri Soul Singles, Volume 1" (July 2014), "The Merri Soul Singles, Volume 2" (August), "The Merri Soul Singles, Volume 3" (October) and "The Merri Soul Singles, Volume 4" (November). Kelly promoted the album with a national tour from January to February 2015. He was supported by

Hiatus Kaiyote Hiatus Kaiyote () is an Australian jazz/funk band formed in Melbourne in 2011, made up of singer/guitarist Nai Palm, bassist Paul Bender, keyboardist Simon Mavin, and drummer Perrin Moss. History 2011–2013: Formation and ''Tawk Tomahawk'' I ...

, a

neo-soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...

quartet from Melbourne.

Reception

On the

, ''The Merri Soul Sessions'' peaked at No. 17. Noel Mengel of

News Limited News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...

's website, news.com.au, rated the album as four out of five stars and felt " 's one of those records where you feel the spirit start to finish, nothing too fussed over, no one going through the motions. There's desperation in the lyrics and a lot of joy in the delivery. And all the best soul music has those two essential ingredients." Michael Dwyer of ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' praised Browne's vocals on "Keep on Coming Back for More", which had been performed live by Kelly four years earlier on '' The A – Z Recordings'' (September 2010, as "I Keep on Coming Back for More"), as a track that was "waiting for Browne's extraordinary voice to send it up in flames." Kelly's nephew, Dan Kelly, was "firing jolts of electric guitar across the bow" while "Kelly rocks back and holds down the tense rhythm. Despite the modest tools at hand, it seems less likely the song will fall apart than that Browne will blow it inside out." Kelly agreed that some of his songs were better when sung by other vocalists. Charles Pitter of PopMatters was of the view that "the band and vocal performances show off the breadth of Australia's talent and the songs are of consistently high standard".

Track listing

Personnel

;Musicians * Clairy Browne – lead vocals, backing vocals * Cameron Bruce – keyboards *

Linda Bull Vika and Linda, also known as Vika and Linda Bull, are an Australian vocal duo consisting of Vika Susan Bull (born 1966) and her younger sister, Linda Rose Bull . They came to prominence after singing backing vocals in Joe Camilleri's band The ...

– lead vocals, backing vocals * Vika Bull – lead vocals, backing vocals * Dan Kelly – guitar * Paul Kelly – rhythm guitar, vocals *

Peter Luscombe Peter Luscombe is an Australian drummer and composer. Career Luscombe was a member of The Black Sorrows from 1985 to 1993 appearing on the albums ''A Place in the World'' (1986), ''Dear Children'' (1987), ''Hold on to Me'' (1988), ''Harley and ...

– drums, percussion * Bill McDonald – bass guitar *

Ashley Naylor Ashley John Naylor (born 1970) is an Australian musician, best known for his guitar and vocals in Melbourne-based band Even.Spencer et al, (2007Naylor, Ashleyentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. In 1987 at the age of 17, Naylor played guitar in ...

– guitar *

– lead vocals, backing vocals *

– lead vocals, backing vocals ;Recording details * Paul Kelly – producer * Bruce Lucey – mastering * Steven Schram – engineer, mixing, producer ;Artwork * Andy Doherty – booklet * Jeff Fasano – cover art * Paul Kelly – liner notes * Mark Roper – cover art * Peter Salmon-Lomas – artwork, design

Chart performance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merri Soul Sessions, The 2014 albums Paul Kelly (Australian musician) albums