Long March Through the Jazz Age

Long March Through the Jazz Age is the last album by Chris Bailey and The Saints. It’s a moving farewell – a testament to a restless, uncompromising artist who always moved forward, one of rock’s great lyricists and iconoclasts. Recorded in late 2018 at Church Street Studios in Sydney, Bailey and longtime Saints drummer Pete Wilkinson flew in from Europe to reunite with guitarist/engineer Sean Carey, who had previously toured and recorded with the band. They were joined by Davey Lane (You Am I) on guitar, plus a handpicked ensemble of Sydney’s most exciting young horn, string and keyboard players. From Bailey’s rough demos, Long March Through the Jazz Age grew into a deeply human snapshot of modern times. Empires (Sometimes We Fall) is the album’s anthemic opener, cast on a bedrock of western guitars punctuated by Bailey’s aching lyrics: “Sometimes we rise, sometimes we fall”. It’s the perfect set up for an album that swaggers with Bailey’s inherent punk spirit while flowing freely in a spacious production. A 12-string adds harmony and warmth to the string-laden Judas, it is a glorious melancholic piece, Gasoline smacks of the Stones country honking for Exile On Main Street, while Bruises is a candid recollection of how this celebrated troubadour got to where he did. There are moments of Dylan-esque majesty as chiming guitars and strings widen the panoramic scale, while the title track carries a haunting, poetic intensity, its mournful trumpet break as spine-tingling as anything you’ll hear. Long March Through the Jazz Age marks the end of Chris Bailey and The Saints’ remarkable journey – over four decades of music making and rule defying.