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

Paul Kelly caps off a busy musical year with Death’s Dateless Night, his first-ever collaboration with another of Australia’s musical legends, Charlie Owen. Released on October 7th, Kelly has said that the album came about as the two were driving to a funeral, “Charlie and I had talked over the years about making a record together but had never got around to it. Driving to a friend’s funeral last year and discussing the songs we’d played at other such occasions, separately and together, finally gave us our frame.”

While the twelve songs in the varied collection may not be ones that initially come to mind when thinking of funeral arrangements, Kelly and Owen present them in a way that is appropriate and reverent so that they genuinely fit the mood.

​Beginning with Stephen Foster’s delicate piano ballad, “Hard Times,” and continuing with Townes Van Zandt’s “To Live Is To Fly”, the project features renditions of well-known songs including  a heavenly version of the Beatles “Let It Be”, and Leonard Cohen’s “Bird On A Wire”  as well as songs from their homeland, such as the haunting and serene “Pretty Bird Tree” and the poignant “Good Things.” Night is rounded out with two of Kelly’s originals “Nukkanya” and the album’s affecting standout, “Meet Me In The Middle of The Air,” before closing with Hank Williams’ “Angel of Death.”

While listening to Death’s Dateless Night you might find yourself shedding a tear or two; and while they may be filled with sorrow, they will also contain some joy, as the songs remind us that while death is a sadly inevitable part of life, that life - and the people in it- should be celebrated and cherished both while living and when the time comes to move on.

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