Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Is This Not Paris - John kennedy

John Kennedy has a revamped web site and
you can buy his brilliant new cd there plus so
much more.
I lifted the following review and video from
them but have a look yourself.
johnfranciskennedy.com.au

Is This Not Paris? is Kennedy’s 11th album and his
first since the release of Someone’s Dad in 2007.
This new album continues Kennedy’s established
musical themes of travel and heartache.
But it is also a departure in many ways.
Subtitled Emotion Picture Soundtracks,
Is This Not Paris? is a concept album of sorts
where Kennedy and his band present songs that were
film soundtracks, should have been soundtracks or
could still be soundtrack music.

Along with new original songs, this album contains
covers of well known film soundtracks mashed with
more obscure songs and covers of songs with a strong
filmic sense that Kennedy has picked up on his travels
around the globe. Kennedy has even covered two of his
own hits: Big Country and The Texan Thing,
reinterpreting them as soundtrack music.
There are also new original spaghetti western
and surf instrumentals.

The album was recorded in his adopted hometown of
Sydney with his band John Kennedy’s ’68 Comeback
Special at Zen Studios, St Peters –
only a stone’s throw away from Kennedy’s beloved
King Street. Multi-instrumentalist, Jeff Pope’s
guitar, dobro, pedal steel and lap steel playing
give the songs a stronger roots flavour than the
band’s last release.

The title song, Is This Not Paris? features a duet
with Kennedy and Megan Heyward that transports
Johnny Cash and June Carter’s Jackson to Newtown,
Sydney via London and Paris. Wherever the bus routes
meet, John Kennedy is there. This new album finds
Kennedy bringing it all back home. In the title song
he compares Newtown with the City of Light and
concludes that,
“the Newtown skyline has it’s own romance”.
As he sang in his song King Street back in ’85,
“All roads lead to Newtown”.



Is This Not Paris -
John Kennedy and Megan Heyward

and 68 comeback special

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