Stolen Apples is the twenty fifth album by Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly (musician)

Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor...

  and was released in July 2007 on EMI Music. The album is Kelly's first solo album since Ways & Means in 2004, and features religious themes throughout.

The song "You're 39, You're Beautiful and You're Mine" was a Kelly song originally written for Tex, Don and Charlie

Tex, Don and Charlie

Tex, Don and Charlie is an Australian super group formed by Tex Perkins from The Cruel Sea, Beasts of Bourbon and others, Don Walker from Cold Chisel and widely respected guitarist Charlie Owen. Their first album Sad But True was released in 1993 with the second released in 2005.The band was...

 (Tex Perkins

Tex Perkins

Tex Perkins is an Australian singer-songwriter, who is widely known for fronting the popular Australian rock-band The Cruel Sea, but has also performed with the Beasts of Bourbon, Thug, James Baker Experience, The Butcher Shop, Salamander Jim, and Tex, Don and Charlie. He has also released many...

, Don Walker

Don Walker (musician)

Don Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter known for writing many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. He played piano and keyboard with the band from 1973 to 1983, when they disbanded. He has since continued to record and tour, both solo and with Tex, Don and Charlie,...

 and Charlie Owen)

"Tex and I were doing a gig in Melbourne at the Famous Spiegeltent and Paul was playing later on the same day. After our gig, we were standing around and Paul was saying how much he loved the old album. - Owen
"We said, 'Oh yeah, we're doing a new one. You haven't got any songs, have you?' A few days later, he turns up at my house with a little cassette." - Perkins

The song was subsequently included on their 2005 album All is Forgiven.

"Tex sang it beautifully and we had to work to find a way to reclaim the song that didn't just sound like an imitation of their version. We tried it three or four different ways and had almost given up on it until we hit on doing it as a waltz. Now my favourite line in the song is the one where Tex changed the lyric to improve on what I had written." - Kelly

On "The Ballad of Queenie and Rover" Kelly tells the story of acclaimed Aboriginal artists Queenie McKenzie

Queenie McKenzie

Queenie McKenzie was a contemporary Indigenous Australian artist. She was born on Old Texas Station, on the western bank of the Ord River in the East Kimberley. Her works have sold at auction for $8000 to $15000.-External links:...

 and Rover Thomas

Rover Thomas

Rover Thomas Joolama was an Indigenous Australian artist.-Early life:He was born at Gunawaggi in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. At the age of 10 Rover and his family moved to the Kimberley where, as was usual at the time, he began work as a stockman...

, from the Warmun community in the East Kimberley

Kimberley region of Western Australia

The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts, and on the east by the Northern Territory.The region...

.

"Rover came to painting in later life and Queenie was a stock camp cook for many years before she took up painting and they both rose to prominence. I heard the story about how Queenie saved Rover’s life as a young man when he was kicked in the head by his horse and she sewed him up with needle and thread. When the doctor arrived he said, ‘I don’t need to do anything else, it’s been beautifully done.’" - Kelly

Track listing

All tracks written by Paul Kelly unless otherwise indicated.

1. "Feelings of Grief" - 5:55
2. "God Told Me To
   God Told Me To (song)
   "God Told Me To" is the first single from Australian songwriter Paul Kelly's album Stolen Apples.The song deals with a fictional character called John Johanna, on trial for murder. To explain his actions, John defends himself by saying that God told him to do this...
   
   " - 3:41
3. "Stolen Apples Taste The Sweetest" - 4:16
4. "The Sweetest Thing" - 3:24
5. "You're 39, You're Beautiful and You're Mine" - 3:34
6. "The Lion and The Lamb" (Paul Kelly, Dan Kelly, Dan Luscombe, Peter Luscombe, Bill McDonald) - 3:33
7. "Right Outta My Head" (Paul Kelly, Dan Kelly) - 3:20
8. "Keep on Driving" - 2:13
9. "The Ballad of Queenie and Rover" - 4:10
10. "The Foggy Fields of France" - 4:05
11. "Please Leave Your Light On" - 3:16

Personnel

• Paul Kelly - Acoustic guitar, lead vocals, piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
   on "Please Leave Your Light On"
• Dan Kelly - Electric guitar, banjo
  Banjo
  In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
  
  , harmony vocals, piano on "The Foggy Fields Of France"
• Dan Ludscombe - Electric guitar, slide guitar
  Slide guitar
  Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
  
  , keyboards, harmony vocals
• Peter Ludscombe - Drums, percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  , occasional harmony vocals
• Bill McDonald - Bass, occasional harmony vocals
• Steve Hesketh - Guest keyboardist on "Right Outta My Head"
• Michael Barclay - Harmony vocals on "Keep On Driving"
• Amanda Roff - Harmony and backing vocals on "The Sweetest Thing"
• Sharman Williamson, Eva McDonald, Natalie Camilleri and The Boon Companions - backing vocals on "The Sweetest Thing"
• The Pigram Brothers
  The Pigram Brothers
  The Pigram Brothers are a 7 piece Indigenous Australian band from the pearling town of Broome, Western Australia formed in 1996.They were heavily involved in Broome's musical and theatrical exports - forming the original backing band for Jimmy Chi's Bran Nue Dae in 1990 – a musical that received...
  
   - Harmony vocals on "The Ballad of Queenie and Rover"
• Ross Irwin - Trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
   and Flugel horn on "The Ballad of Queenie and Rover"

Credits

• Mastered by Ross Cockle
• Mixed by Scott Horscoft and Aaron Cupples
• Engineered by Adam Rhodes
• Art by David Homer

Stolen Apples Tour

For the tour on the back of this album, Paul decided to play the entire album in full and then play a collection of his greatest hits

Greatest hits

A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...

. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Kelly stated that the idea was inspired by a tour Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

 once did in the seventies.

The Band

The band for this tour was:

Paul Kelly - Lead vocals

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

, acoustic guitar

Steel-string acoustic guitar

A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...

Dan Kelly

Dan Kelly (musician)

Daniel "Dan" Kelly is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is the second oldest of six children and the nephew of Paul Kelly. He grew up in Queensland and learnt the guitar at thirteen, studying Environmental Science at University, in Brisbane, in 1990...

 and Dan Ludscombe - Electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 and harmonies

Peter Ludscombe - drums

Drum kit

A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

 and harmonies

Bill McDonald - Bass guitar

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

 and harmonies

Phil Carroll - keyboards

Keyboard instrument

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...