Paul Kelly makes some gravy with Goldfields prisoners

Legendary Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly paid a visit to the regional WA prison where inmates recorded a cover version of one of his most celebrated songs. While in Kalgoorlie-Boulder to perform a Perth Festival concert last week, Kelly took the opportunity to meet staff and prisoners taking part in a music program at Eastern Goldfields Regional Prison. The musician listened to inmates perform some songs at the prison’s education campus before doing a few numbers himself with fellow singer-songwriter Jess Hitchcock. In 2022 a group of EGRP prisoners recorded the classic How To Make Gravy — the lyrics are a letter from a prisoner missing his family before Christmas — to see it broadcast nationally. Musician Chris Edmondson and EGRP education staff worked with the prisoners to release their version — in English and Pitjantjatjara, a Western Desert language — on December 21, aka “Gravy Day”. “I heard the song and I really loved it. So when I got the invitation I thought, ‘yeah, we can come’,” Kelly said. “Music is a universal language. A good example is their recording of the song. “There are a couple of different languages in there but the feeling still comes across.” How To Make Gravy was among the songs Kelly performed at the prison. One of the prisoners was invited to join Kelly during the performance. “You go to a special place when you play guitar,” the prisoner said. “It’s like mentally and physically it helps with everything — in prison, it helps us tell our stories. “To the young ones out there and our families, it plays a very big part in Aboriginal culture.” Prisoner education campus manager Cassie Tasker said getting involved in music was a gateway for prisoners to join other education programs. “The guys are very gifted naturally in music so it’s a real confidence-booster for them and it’s a way for them to share culture,” Ms Tasker said. “It’s that drawcard of bringing them into us where historically these people might not have had good experiences with the education system.” This was not the first time EGRP prisoners had worked with someone from the Australian music pantheon. Midnight Oil guitarist Jim Moginie has mixed and mastered two albums by male and female prisoners at EGRP, including an Indigenous-language cover of one of the band’s songs.