By Jeff Jenkins
THE ENDLESS ROAD Joe Camilleri celebrates his 50th album – with a little help from his friends.
THE BLACK SORROWS
SAINT GEORGES ROAD Ambition
When Joe Camilleri was starting to think about his 50th album, an old friend landed on his doorstep. It was Peter Solley, the Englishman who produced Camilleri’s first big album – Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons’ Screaming Targets in 1979. “He came to Australia via Vietnam,” Camilleri explains. “It was just before the world changed (with COVID). He had a world ticket and he wanted to hang out. He thought he could get a couple of weeks accommodation for free.” So, Camilleri put his old friend to work, producing The Black Sorrows’ new album, Saint Georges Road. “It was lovely, really,” Camilleri says of the experience. “It gave me the opportunity to just be a musician and let him take care of everything else.” Solley – who now lives in America – was not afraid to tell the band: “I think you’re grazing.” “That meant we were playing just for the sake of playing, and there’s always a lot of that because we’re a jamming band. And he wanted us to stop that nonsense.” Had Solley – who also produced Hats Off Step Lively, Dexterity and Cha – changed much since the Jo Jo Zep days? “Well, he’s older and a little bit shorter … I can say that, because he’s back in America and can’t hear me. “He told me he lost part of his hearing when he was producing Motörhead, because they played so loud. But I didn’t know that until after he finished the record – no wonder it’s all one-sided.” When they entered Melbourne’s Woodstock Studios, Solley asked Camilleri: “What kind of record do you want to make?” He replied, “A good one.” “I made a mistake,” Camilleri laughs. “I should have said, ‘I want a hit record.’” But the album – the Sorrows’ 19th studio set and Camilleri’s 50th album – is a joy from start to finish. “Reassemble the old crew,” Camilleri sings in ‘Livin Like Kings’. And some old favourites are along for the ride, including Falcons sax man Wilbur Wilde and Sorrows founding member George Butrumlis on piano accordion, while Camilleri wrote all the songs with his long-time “partner in crime”, the enigmatic Nick Smith, who comes out of hiding to add some backing vocals to ‘Another Blue Day’. The title track is a moving tribute to the “fallen soldiers”. “I’m one of 10 kids, and I lost one of my brothers, Tony, to cancer a bit over a year ago,” Joe explains. “Chris Wilson had also died and then Chet (Stuart Fraser), Martin Armiger and Greedy (Smith). And Nick lost his mum, and Michael Gudinski died. The song is about the sadness of going to a funeral and celebrating someone’s life and then looking at your own mortality.”
“So we raise a glass or three to our true lost friend,” Camilleri sings. “Though nobody wants to face it, we’ll all meet up in the end.” “If there is a God,” he adds, “we’ll all reunite in rockabilly heaven or whatever you subscribe to.” Solley – who also added his Hammond B3 and keyboards to the record – loved being reunited with Camilleri. “We’re like brothers,” the Grammy-nominated producer says, “and to this day, we love each other.” During the making of the record, the producer remarked to Camilleri: “You never do the same thing twice, you really shit me.” “Aren’t I doing it the same?” Camilleri responded. “No … Stop jamming!” The result is a classic Black Sorrows record, with the playful ‘Chiquita’ a throwback to the band’s early zydeco days, while ‘Holy Man’, a celebration of getting lost in the moment, recalls the band’s hitmaking era at the end of the ’80s. “I want to see the light, feel it touch your soul,” Camilleri sings. “Need to catch the fever and surrender control.” “Every song you write is a Maserati,” the singer smiles, “and it turns out to be something from Russia. But as a famous guy once said, you can’t lose ’em all – occasionally you get a fistful of songs that are worthy of making a record.” The Black Sorrows aren’t chasing hits, they’re just making top-shelf music. As Camilleri sings in ‘What’s Taken Your Smile Away’, “You could get lost in the search for perfection and end up with nothing at all.” Music, Joe Camilleri says, is all about embracing the “beautiful mistakes”. Long may he graze. Saint Georges Road is released September 10. The Black Sorrows are playing at Bluesfest 2022.
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