Musician Matt Ward kept having vivid dreams about rugged Australian landscapes with sweeping escarpments, ancient trees and mighty rivers.
The South Australian town of Springton mysteriously appeared in one dream, though Ward wasn’t sure he’d ever visited.
So following the whims of his subconscious, he set out from his Adelaide Hills property to visit the historic Barossa Valley hamlet.
On the way, he was in a car crash.
Everyone in the accident was fine, though Ward didn’t reach the place his dreams led him.
This strange sequence of events inspired the song Come Home Safe, the moving opening track on Ward’s third studio album The Long Way Home released this week.
“It was just one of those bizarre songs, or one of those meant-to-be songs, where lots of golden threads came together,” Ward told AAP.
The song, featuring some of those dreamed-up ancient trees and dusty roads, came about as Ward found his home on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
“Australian country roads, bushfires, kangaroos on the side of the road and dirt roads are a metaphor for not always looking for happiness in far-flung places when it might be right there at home,” he said.
Ward, who has a PhD in ecology, expertly explores the parallels between the natural world and love in his new offering, which follows two Australian country chart-topping albums.
The track Find You a Valley is set in SA’s Mount Lofty ranges, backed by the sounds of a babbling brook and bursts of birdsong.
Ward croons: “I can hear the outside world is calling but I don’t care for the songs that world sings.”
His loyal border collie-kelpie Shooter encouraged Ward to venture out into the bush and discover new paths, sights and sounds that feature in the song.
“It’s about really closing your eyes and envisioning all those things around you,” Ward said.
“When you know love is there at the centre of things, you can block everything else out.”
The album, which Ward says hits on all the country classics of “matters of the heart, matters of the road”, closes on a tender note.
The final track, Holding Onto You, reflects on the strength of his sister and brother-in-law, who endured the loss of their young son Sam Roberts from a rare degenerative condition.
“It’s a sombre reminder that love and life and all of this stuff is somewhat fleeting,” Ward said,
“The album is a celebration of home, finding home, and that feeling you have when you feel at peace.
“But also of appreciating what you have at the time and living in the present.”
Ward is set to play the Groundwater Country Music Festival on the Gold Coast in Queensland next month, joining a line-up that includes Kasey Chambers, Adam Brand and America’s Jim Lauderdale.
The Long Way Home was released on September 6
