How to Make Gravy

Description

A memoir in a hundred songs - classy storytelling from Australia's most prodigious singer-songwriter. Paul Kelly is a uniquely gifted storyteller. For thirty years he has written songs of uncommon directness about everything from love and land rights to cricket and cooking. 'Before Too Long', 'To Her Door', 'Leaps And Bounds', 'Don't Start Me Talking', 'Dumb Things', 'From Little Things Big Things Grow', 'How To Make Gravy' - his songs connect generations of listeners across the country. In a memoir that has been greeted with acclaim by critics and adulation by fans, Kelly takes the lyrics of his songs as starting points to tell the stories of his life - the highs and lows of performing, the art of songwriting, being on the road with the band, tales of his childhood, family, friends and fellow musicians. All illuminate Kelly's wide sources of inspiration, offering an unequalled portrait of the creative mind. Playful and honest, insightful and intimate, How To Make Gravy is an irresistible reflection on both the big and little things in life. Kelly's specially recorded versions of the A to Z songs, stripped back to their essentials as solo or duo performances, are available digitally and in a companion CD boxed set that included a 64-pages booklet of photographs. 'A carnival of ideas . . . The flavour of Kelly - his openness and honesty and passion for the detail of life - he suffuses the book . . . The closest we've come to an insight into the thoughts and work methods of this great poet.' Weekly Review 'The pre-eminent writer of his generation. His body of work stands against any novelist, playwright or filmmaker as the definitive narrative of recent decades.' Weekend Australian 'Perhaps the finest and most unflinching autobiography ever written by an Australian musician.' Noel Mengel

Paul Kelly is recognised as one of the most significant singer/songwriters in the country. As well as issuing an enduring body of work both solo and with his bands, including The Dots, The Coloured Girls and The Messengers, Kelly has written film scores (Lantana and Jindabyne), and produced albums for and written songs with some of Australia and New Zealand's finest artists. His prose has appeared in Meanjin, The Monthly, Rolling Stone and The Age, and his first book, How To Make Gravy, was published in 2010. He was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 1997 and had two songs included in the Australasian Performing Rights Association's (APRA) 2001 list of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time -- 'To Her Door' and 'Treaty' (written with Yothu Yindi). His hits also include 'Dumb Things' and the classic 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' (with Kev Carmody). His most recent album was 2012's Spring And Fall. In 2011 Paul Kelly received the Ted Albert Award For Outstanding Services to Australian Music at the APRA Music Awards. Paul Kelly lives in St Kilda, Melbourne.