Sweet Songs is a collaboration between Doctor D and Fergus Maximus, multi-award-winning songwriters based in Adelaide. They first worked together in the sell-out Adelaide 2021 Fringe Show SWT_HM_ADL. Since then they have been delighting audiences with their music, stories and amiable on-stage personas. Their debut album Back in ADL is out now and you hear a great sampling of it, with seven full tracks in this episode.
The episode image was shot by Ben Searcy.
The SA Drink Of The Week - no featured drink this week.
And the whole episode is a Musical Pilgrimage segment this week!
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Running Sheet: Sweet Home Adelaide Songs
00:00:00 Intro
Introduction
00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week
No SA Drink Of The Week this week.
00:02:48 Fergus Maximus and Dr D, Back in ADL
Back In ADL is an album by Fergus Maximus and Dr D, drawing together some of the songs of their Adelaide Fringe hit show, Sweet Home Songs (and its earlier manifestations). There is so much goodness in the album, that we have them in the studio to walk us through a selection of songs about this state and this city, which has been named the Coolest Place In Australia by the Wall Street Journal.
Fergus, you've been on the Adelaide Show before, and you have 100% South Australian bona fides, having been born in Whyalla and grown up in Clare. Plus, you are married to one of our longest term listeners, Andrea Ferguson. I picture Johnny Cash walking along a railway line in the country and picking out a tune like, I Walk The Line. When did you first write a song based on a location in South Australia?
Dr D. In the early days of our podcast, you had to be born and bred in SA to get a gong, but having moved here from the UK after your frequent visits gradually hardwired SA into your DNA, you are warmly welcomed. You've performed on five continents including legendary venues in London and Chicago. Is there a tangible, physical difference between the venues in those places compared to venues in South Australia OR if they feel more significant, is that due to the aura of those cities?
It took me 4 or 5 songs on my first listen to fight through the echoes of cultural cringe. I’ve spoken about this with Peter Goers about how I don’t bat an eyelid when a song talks about Baton Rouge or New York or Chicago or London, but when it mentions anywhere in Australia, let alone South Australia, it feels tacky or too familiar. I don’t think it’s actually cultural cringe because I’m very proud of our country and our townships. I think it might more closely be linked to the saying that a profit is never recognised or respected in their homeland.
Let's get going with the title track, Back in ADL.
BACK IN ADL (17:35)
When you are writing about places, how do you stop them from sounding like TV commercials or slogans or jingles for property developments? Henley Square is one of those songs that comes very close to sounding like this, but so, too, does the title track, Back in ADL.
The line take me to your deli counter and let me taste your ways because there's lots of innuendo there especially with smallgoods ... or is that just me?
In our early days, we had the Adelaide Visa Council because people mad
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