Doug Wallen reviews 'Paul Kelly Presents: The Merri Soul Sessions'
Hopping around the stage of Ballarat’s historic Her Majesty’s Theatre, Paul Kelly at one point resembled a giddy teenager cutting loose on rhythm guitar at band practice rather than a veteran songwriter with nearly twenty albums behind him. Such exuberance can be attributed in large part to the night’s premise: Kelly augmented his five-piece live configuration with five singers who took turns singing lead. The format originated with his most recent album, The Merri Soul Sessions (2014), but expanded to new proportions live as Kelly and his collaborators – keyboardist Cameron Bruce, drummer Peter Luscombe, bassist Bill MacDonald, guitarist Ash Naylor, and vocalists Vika Bull, Linda Bull, Clairy Browne, Kira Puru, and Dan Sultan – moved through album selections as well as reimagining Kelly classics and appropriate cover songs.
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