KEYES TO THE KINGDOM - Inpress Magazine, Melbourne - Feb 2006

"Neil Rogers has got the best Australian music show on radio (The Australian Mood on RRR at 6pm on Thursdays). Neil has been championing a Sydney singer/songwriter named Perry Keyes saying it reminds him of a young Richard Clapton and early Paul Kelly. High praise indeed.

And Perry Keyes lives up to it on his debut album, a double-disc called Meter (on Laughing Outlaw Records). Label boss Stuart Coupe, who used to manage Paul Kelly, calls him "the Bruce Springsteen of Redfern". Perry - a Sydney taxi driver - paints a picture of inner-city Sydney. You can feel the grease and the grind. These are songs about drugs, beer, love, hotels, punting, tattoos and taxis. They're real rather than romantic. "Eighteen months down the track, "Perry sings, "they've got a little boy and a housing commission flat/They don't do anything any more/Just fight out their own lonely war". Perry's website (perrykeyes.com) states "Think Bruce Springsteen's New Jersey, Paul Kelly's Melbourne and Richard Buckner's first marriage."

He also reminds Howzat! of Tom Petty and Pete Droge. Tim Freedman has called Meter "the best Australian album in the last five years". And Perry has even scored a rave in Billboard magazine which reported that "he has never left the state of NSW or been on a plane". In fact he opened his first bank account only last October. It's a fascinating story and a great Australian album. Neil Rogers is interviewing Perry on The Australian Mood this week."