Paul Kelly announces 2025 tour with Jason Isbell and Fanny Lumsden

Australian music icon Paul Kelly will release his 29th album Fever, melancholy still in a couple of weeks, and he has big plans to celebrate this record and his esteemed 40+ year career with a series of Australia’s biggest concerts.

Next August, Kelly and his esteemed band will be stepping away from the pubs, theaters and festivals where you usually see them, and performing at some of the country’s biggest arenas.

It’s not undeserved. For many, Kelly’s work is part of the national cultural fabric, the kind of music that transcends both musical and generational differences. Many of his songs are anthems, and there are always many people eager to hear them in the flesh.

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In other very exciting news for fans of great songwriting, Kelly has revealed an incredible Jason Isbell and Squad 400 play main support at all concerts.

Isbell is one of the greatest songwriters of our time. He rose to fame after his stint with the Drive-By Truckers in the 2000s, but truly hit the big time with his fourth solo album, 2013’s Southeastern, which earned him the critical and popular recognition he long deserved.

Isbell and his band have visited Australia many times, but for many this is no doubt a special opportunity to catch him for the first time and discover a new favorite artist.

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It doesn’t end there. ARIA award-winning singer-songwriter and insatiable touring act Fanny Lumsden will kick off these shows, proving to the masses why she has become one of the most revered figures in Australian country music in recent years.

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About his new album, Paul Kelly said that it is his attempt to highlight love in its many forms.

“Urgent love, patient love, happy love, sad love, deceptive love, clear-eyed love, complicated love, the beginning of love, the end of love; love gone wrong, love quite right, love of the clan, love between parents and children, love of oblivion, love of pain, love of revenge,” he says about his theme.

One thing is for sure: Australians love Paul Kelly and these huge shows will be further proof of just how much.

Watch Paul Kelly, Jason Isbell and Fanny Lumsden perform at the following dates next year:

Tuesday 26 August – Perth Arena, Whadjuk Noongar Land.

Friday 29 August – Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Jagera Turrbul Land.

Saturday 30 August – Sydney SuperDome, Wangala Land

Tuesday 2 September – Derwent Leisure Centre, Palawa Land, Hobart.

Thursday 4 September – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Kaurna Land.

Saturday 6 September – Rod Laver Arena, Wurundjeri Wurrung Land, Melbourne

Tickets on sale from Wednesday 30 October.