Simone Keane Releases Fifth Album

MEDIA RELEASE
PRESENTING
SIMONE KEANE’S NEW ALBUM

Produced by Lee Buddle

GRACED BY LEAVES

OUT OCTOBER 27 2023

LISTEN NOW

Intensely beautiful and rich with unabashed emotion and a whole lotta love, Simone Keane’s fifth album Graced By Leaves is sure to touch even the most stoic of hearts. Produced by Lee Buddle of CRANK STUDIO, Perth Western Australia (Kelly Clarkson, Gurrumul Yunupingu, Justin Bieber) the production values in this contemporary folk album have a warm, pure integrity. Each song references trees – from making love under one to being buried beneath another. The opening song Those Beautiful Times prepares us for the journey starting with the optimistic innocence of childhood with lyrics like “homemade butterscotch puddings and nursery rhymes” and“seesaw a swing set and a rocking horse with China blue eyes” invoking memories of a simpler, naive time.

Trees are both literal and symbolic conduits for the stories within Keane’s songs. In the title track, we learn about a cherished childhood tree that gets cut down. This symbolises the grief we feel when someone close to us is taken from our lives and the subsequent confusion around this. Keane sings, “The air in this place doesn’t feel quite the same as when we were graced by your leaves.” Grace by Leaves, the song, presents a metaphorical ode to the dead and a statement about the air we breathe losing its freshness when devoid of trees.

Lucky Oceans (dual Grammy award musician) plays pedal steel on the title track and select songs throughout the album. “I wanted a nostalgic feel for the title track as well as Those Beautiful Times, Birds, and some country injected into the cheeky four-way acoustic jam, Re-Leaved.” Says Keane of Ocean’s work on the album.

Graced by Leaves is a timeless album with universal themes of personal reflection and childhood memories, complete with instructions for a natural burial in My Wicker Burial. “What’s a folk album without a burial song?” says Keane. The songs carry brevity, from the popular catchy folk-pop single Kicking up the Leaves to the soul-stirring folk blues tracks with a hymn-like quality Birds. The album carries the listener on a gentle journey of deep, rapturous, and mournful emotion.

Keane’s tender honey-toned vocals evoke a yearning for simpler times. The album holds a timeless quality with Keane’s inner child voice meeting the adult, for a heart-to-heart. Her voice is complemented beautifully by singing instrumentation including the violin, particularly on the title track. “When I was ill with long COVID, all these childhood memories came back. As a child, I was unwell with recurring lung infections. I was feeling quite sensitive when I wrote a lot of these songs and contemplating the fragility of life and how important it is to take time out of our hectic lives to commune with nature and appreciate our friends and family.” Says Keane.

Karri Trees in the Rain, a collaboration with poet Giles Watson, gives listeners an insight into Keane’s love of natural places of worship. “Giles sent me a poem consisting of three verses to use in a song. I loved the poem so much that I wrote the song and decided to include it on the album. I then added the bridge at the end where I sing, ‘I’m on my knees under Karri trees, their healing shade, a cathedral graced by leaves.” Continuing, Keane says “I knew in that moment I had the title of the album and a theme – trees.”

Musicians on the album include Lucky Oceans (Asleep at the Wheel) on pedal steel and dobro, Ben Franz (The Waifs) on bass, drummer Bronton Ainsworth (Adam Hall and the Velvet Playboys), Phillip Waldron on double bass, French Australian violinist Marie Limondin, Rosco Dwyer on lead guitar, Kiersten Fage on cello, special guest cellist Kevin Gillam on My Wicker Burial and Those Beautiful Times. Guest violinist Ellie Honeybone plays on Birds along with Bass flute by Producer Lee Buddle. Grand Piano by the UK’s Phil Richardson (Helen Townsend), with percussion, acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies by Simone Keane.

Simone Keane is a previous dual WAM Song of the Year winner after five nominations, a first for a regional artist. She is from the deep, lush, mysterious southern coast of Western Australia.

Ends.

For media enquiries, to play the song or interview Simone contact Bronny Lane, Publicist, bronwen@littletrain.com.au | 0413 221 252.

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UPCOMING SHOWS

Graced by Leaves Album Launch

WHEN: 29 October, 2023