New release puts country vibe into Australian Americana and heart into the ‘down under’ heartland.
Matt Ward’s ‘The Long Way Home’ is his third album and to riff on that old adage, the third time is charming. It should come as no surprise that some great Americana music comes from Australia. The U.S. and Australia share English/Scottish/Irish musical roots and both countries developed from European immigrant displacement of indigenous peoples. Both have wide open spaces and both Australia and America see themselves as growing out of the ‘frontier experience.’ But there also great differences. Australia hasn’t felt had the same influence of African music, which is the foundation of so much American music. And while both countries share the English language, their cultures are really quite different.
So what makes ‘The Long Way Home’ an Americana album? The sound, of course. The songs ring with great guitar work: Ward’s acoustic, pedal steel by Geoff Queen and slide by James Church. Josh Schubert on drums and Matt Fell on bass provide a solid foundation. Luke Mohler’s violin weaves in and out of a number of songs and Katie Brianna and Lozz Benson’s backing vocals provide depth and range. While this ensemble gives the whole work a country/folk/rock sound that is right at home in the Americana sound landscape, it is the vulnerability and honesty of Ward’s song that gives this release authenticity, the hallmark of the best of Americana. It is also Ward’s understanding of place and his ability to conjure up lyrical portraits of this which makes the album a great piece of Americana, albeit firmly set in Australia.
That sense is clear from the very first track, ‘Come Home Safe. When Ward sings “Hit the mallee…” and “Light is fading, longer shading kangaroos on the side of the road”, you know aren’t in Kansas anymore. This a great road song – about Australian roads. And as you listen to seven other tracks on the album you learn about Ward’s love for where he has taken you.
Before he became a professional musician, Ward was an ornithologist with a PhD in Ecology. He spent some two decades working in remote parts of South Australia with First Nations and regional communities on wildlife management, threatened species recovery and sustainable agriculture. Ward writes lyrically of a countryside he knows so well. In ‘Petrichor’ he sings that “l hear the dawn before it’s rising, I smell the rain before it falls.” As he notes, the album “draws inspiration from the landscapes I’ve cherished all my life, … and the challenges I’ve faced on the road in search of a place to call my own.”
But the album isn’t just about the countryside. ‘Long Road Home’ captures the love of Ward’s parents after more than 60 years of marriage. “Holding Onto You” is about the untimely death of his nephew, his sister and brother-in-law holding on after such a devastating loss and the hope of enduring love. “Find a Valley” is dedicated to his dog, (That alone would qualify this album as a true country album). These are, of course, risky themes – they could come across as sentimental, maudlin or way too cute – but Ward pulls it off by putting himself on the line. His songs have the ring of truth; reflecting the hardship, the joy and the vulnerability of life.
He has described ‘Morning Light’, which features Katie Brianna, as a “raw and brutally honest song about ‘crossing the line… the anxiety felt before being intimate with someone new, written in a heartbeat with genuine emotion.” But it works because it has heart – and honesty, a good description of the whole album.
Listen to this album, listen closely. It’s only eight songs, and every one of them has something within it that makes it worth the time it takes. It’s about Australia, it’s about Matt Ward, and it’s about all of us, whatever country’s roads we walk down.
