The Gravy Story Continues: Paul Kelly's New Chapter
It began with a funeral notice published in The Age newspaper on August 11, 2025, announcing the death of Joe "by sudden misadventure." The notice painted a vivid picture of a man who loved music, food, football, and family gatherings, famously asking: "Who's gonna make the gravy?" This fictional death notice marked the surprising next chapter in a story that began nearly thirty years earlier with Paul Kelly's classic Christmas song, How To Make Gravy.
From Prison Letter to Ghost Story
On August 15, 2025, Paul Kelly released Rita Wrote A Letter, the long-awaited sequel to his 1996 hit. The original song introduced us to Joe, writing from prison worried about who would make gravy for Christmas. The new song gives voice to Rita, Joe's wife, though Kelly admits Joe "just wouldn't stop talking" even from beyond the grave.
"I'd always wanted to write a sequel to How To Make Gravy, because I thought Rita didn't get much of a go in the first song," Kelly tells Weekender. "I thought it would be good to have a song from her point of view."
The song presents an intentional juxtaposition - dark, tragic lyrics set against an upbeat, lighthearted melody. "It's kind of a ghost story and a black comedy," Kelly describes, noting the influence of Hank Williams' approach to pairing cheerful music with sad lyrics.
A Career of Storytelling at Seventy
Rita Wrote A Letter serves as the first single from Kelly's new album Seventy, released this week. Officially his 30th studio album, though Kelly admits he's "vague on the numbers," the collection showcases an artist still at the peak of his creative powers five decades into his career.
The album is bookended by two parts of Tell Us A Story, framing the collection similar to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. "This is a record called Seventy so naturally there are a lot of songs that are relevant to being 70," Kelly explains. "Songs about enduring friendships, approaching mortality, worrying about your grandchildren, all that stuff."
Among the standout tracks is Sailing To Byzantium, which sets WB Yeats' poem to music. "It's a poem I have loved for a long time," Kelly says. "It's full of riches that keep revealing themselves." Another notable song, The Body Keeps The Score, draws inspiration from Bessel van der Kolk's book about trauma and PTSD.
Despite his legendary status in Australian music, with 17 ARIA awards and an Order of Australia, Kelly remains characteristically humble about his craft. "I'm not one of those people who thinks you get wiser when you get older," he laughs when asked if he still does "dumb things."
The Slow Burn of an Australian Classic
Interestingly, How To Make Gravy wasn't an immediate hit when released in 1996. "It wasn't a commercial song," Kelly reflects. "It's quite long, it doesn't have a chorus, it's set in prison, and it was specifically about Christmas."
However, the song experienced a remarkable resurgence, recently finishing ninth in triple j's Hottest 100 Australian Songs countdown. "It was a slow burn, really," Kelly notes, pleasantly surprised by its high placement.
As for what's next, the final words on Seventy - "Put another big log on the fire" - suggest Kelly has many more stories to tell. He'll be headlining the Red Hot Summer Tour in January and February 2026, proving that at seventy, Paul Kelly's voice remains as vital as ever in Australia's cultural landscape.
