MUSIC EXCLUSIVE

RUSSELL Crowe clearly knows the soul-baring terrain ahead. "This could be heavy,'' Crowe whispers, empathetically, the first line of his new album, My Hand My Heart.

As an opening shot, the lyric is understatement and genius, But it does not, as some might assume, set the tone for tales of regret and self-pity.

Rather, the song, titled Weight of a Man, is a tender salute to a wife's unending strength.

In his prettiest and most revealing song so far, Crowe looks hard at himself, the oft-surrounding circus, and the fallout on those closest to him.

" Breathe in deep as you can,'' Crowe sings. "Your strong heart won't break.''

My Hand My Heart is largely a collaboration with Alan Doyle, a singer-songwriter and frontman in Canadian Celtic rock band, Great Big Sea. Significantly, it is also the first time Crowe has released music under his own name.

His past monikers and bands include Russ Le Roc, Dave Deceit and the Interrogators, Rigor Mortis and the Stiffs, Roman Antics and more recently Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts (TOFOG). But My Hand My Heart is the most personal statement of Crowe's music career.

It is an album in that deserves to be heard in terms of musicianship, artistry and depth, not Crowe's celebrity peripherals.

I was invited exclusively to Crowe's Sydney home on Saturday to hear the album.

Crowe politely asked for conversation over an on-the-record interview and, over the course of 4 1/2 hours, talked candidly about life and pride in his new songs.

His songs, and the characters contained within, are packed with exquisite detail.

Crowe has outlined the family tragedies and circle-of-life themes in the new single Raewyn on his websites www.gruntland.com and www.my handmyheart.com

And already respected songwriters praise Crowe's big leap as a fearless and delicate storyteller.

"You're a very enigmatic man,'' Sting wrote to Crowe. "This is not what I was expecting. Your song is a royal gift to (Crowe's son) Charlie, beautiful photographic images, a surprisingly tender voice, and I'm touched you would send it to me.

"But will it get on the radio?'' Sting asked rhetorically. ``Not a chance mate.''

Billy Bragg, one of Crowe's singer-songwriting idols, says Raewyn "brought my morning to a halt, leaving me gazing out at the winter sun on the ocean''. "It's a beautiful, intimate song,'' Bragg wrote.

Crowe is pushed, ably, by a band -- Doyle, Dave Kelly, Stewart Kirwan, Paul Berton, Bones Hillman and Stuart Hunter -- with an uncanny ability to lift songs where TOFOG may have grounded them.

In sparser contexts, Crowe is particularly brave. My Hand My Heart is a drinking song with dark undercurrents. Mr Harris, written in memory of the actor, Richard Harris, is a choral requiem.

Crowe wrote it on a beer coaster in Dublin after a rugby match Australia lost. Harris and Crowe had made plans to attend the game together, but Harris died weeks earlier. As Crowe watched the game alone, he figured Harris was indeed there and making Australia play badly. "Mr Harris, take the field,'' the song says. "The 16th man.''

The album's closing track I Miss My Mind concludes with a very assured move: a two-minute dubby horn solo.

To paraphrase Crowe: it could be heavy. And it is.