MATT WARD PUTS AN AUSSIE COUNTRY HEART INTO NEIL YOUNG’S ‘LOTTA LOVE’
ARIA #1-charting Australian country artist Matt Ward releases ‘Lotta Love’ on Friday 23 October 2026. It is his take on the Neil Young song, and the first single from a new five-track EP of re-imagined Neil Young songs.
Recorded with his band The Southern Kind, the single is available now to radio and media via AMRAP, PlayMPE and private download.
A second-hand CD and a drive to Tamworth
Neil Young wrote ‘Lotta Love’ for his 1978 album Comes a Time, and Nicolette Larson took it into the US top 10 the same year. Plenty of people know the song without knowing Neil wrote it. Ward has slowed it down and given it the warm, dusty country feel that runs through his own records. He co-produced the track with Ryan Martin John at Cactus Cactus Studios in South Australia.
The project started on the highway to Tamworth. With the band in the car and Neil on the stereo, Ward asked a simple question: why not record a few of his songs? That question turned into five tracks.
For Ward, the link goes back a long way. One of the first CDs he ever bought was a second-hand copy of Harvest. It changed the direction of his music, and Neil is still the artist he listens to more than anyone.
“Lotta Love has always been one of those songs that stops me in my tracks, so it had to be the first one out. You can’t beat Neil, so we didn’t try to copy him. We just played it the way it’s always sounded in my head. This EP is my way of saying thanks.” Matt Ward
The EP is a bridge for fans while Ward writes and records his next set of original songs. More songs from the EP will follow.
About Matt Ward
Matt Ward is an ARIA #1-charting country artist from regional South Australia. Years working as a land manager across remote Australia shape his songs about love, loss, open roads and home.
His debut Heartland (2019) and If I Was In Dallas Tonight (2021) both reached #1 on the ARIA Australian Country Album Chart. The Long Way Home (2024) debuted at #2, with ABC Songsmiths calling it “sublime, superb”. His sound, shaped with award-winning producer Matt Fell, moves between Australian country, alt-country and Americana.
With his band The Southern Kind, Ward has played Tamworth Country Music Festival, Gympie Music Muster, Groundwater Country Music Festival and Americanafest in Nashville. In 2026 he released ‘Fight the Flames’ and ‘Come Home Safe’, both recorded live at Tamworth.