Australia’s most loved and revered wordsmith, Paul Kelly returns in 2018 with his twenty fourth studio album, Nature.

Nature is launched by the first single ‘With The One I Love’ and a video directed by Sian Darling, shot in Melbourne’s old magistrate court, where Ned Kelly was famously tried and sentenced to death in 1880.

Kelly entered the studio in Melbourne in March and May this year to record Nature with his esteemed band – Peter Luscombe on drums, Bill McDonald on bass, Ash Naylor and Dan Kelly on guitars and Cameron Bruce on keyboards. “I love playing with them,” he says. “They can morph from delicate scientists to big riff rockers and all states in-between.”

What links the songs is the natural world – trees, birds, animals, plants, dust, desert, water – and human nature’s small place in that world. Most of the pieces were written over the last four years in and around the recording sessions for ‘The Merri Soul Sessions’, ‘Seven Sonnets And A Song’ and ‘Life Is Fine’. I didn’t realise I had the makings of another album until I put the songs in a folder and saw the titles staring me in the face.

I think of ‘Nature’ as a companion piece to ‘Life Is Fine’, itself full of moons, rain, rocks, rivers, seas, smells and lovers.”

Kelly’s Platinum certified 2017 album Life Is Fine debuted at #1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, giving Paul his first ARIA Number One album in a career spanning 40 years. At last year’s ARIA Awards, Kelly took home Best Male and Best Adult Contemporary Album, along with Best Cover Art and Engineer Of The Year. These results ensured Kelly a remarkable 14 ARIA Award wins from a career tally of 51 nominations.