Taken from Colemans third studio album, The Great Tasmanian Escape, due for release through Oscar Treehouse Records on February 28, 2022.
“‘Paloona’ came about towards the end of putting the record together,” recalls Coleman. “It was always down on the map that I was working from, but I didn’t realise at the time of marking it down that it is a hydropower station 20km from anything remotely residential. So the commute for the workers can be 300km, they stay in a motel for a week and then make their way back home.
“I imagined the character, ‘Jesse’ or whoever, resenting the drive and the imposition of unavoidable reflections of the land which he’d feel under a tyre. But, ‘Paloona’ sometimes for me is more an ode to his lover. Other times it’s simply an escape, it’s just another little cog in the ‘machine’ of The Great Tasmanian Escape after all.”
lyrics
‘Paloona’ Lyrics
I turn to you
I always do
My heart is true
Paloona
Blue wrens still fly
Around Devils Gate
You break my heart
Paloona
It’s only when I’m tired lost or lonely
That’s only time that I’ll drive back there
Your heart, your hand
Their sea, Their land
Moonshine, moonlight,
Paloona
All you remind me of is work
Paloona
Paloona
It’s only when I’m tired lost or lonely
That’s only time that I’ll drive back there
Sometimes when I speed through Their midlands
I know that I’m only slowing down
I never want to be a man
Who works until his fingers bleed
But now I do I wish that I
Had calloused hands and tired bones
We worked the dams
They’re waterproof
Thanks to your slaves
Paloona
credits
released October 28, 2021
Recorded through August, 2018 at Sing Sing Studios, Melbourne
Written by Christopher Coleman
Produced by Glenn Richards
Executive Producer: Kirsha Kaechelle
Drums: Mike Noga
Bass: Stuart Hollingsworth
Keys: Kelly Ottaway
Guitars: Christopher Coleman, Glenn Richards
Vocals: Christopher Coleman, Glenn Richards
Engineered and mixed by Aaron Dobos
Mastered by William Bowden at King Willy Sound
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