Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews is an English folk singer-songwriter from Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, born in 1946. He is also known as Ian Matthews and was born Ian Matthews MacDonald.

Career

He begins as a vocalist with Pyramid in the 1960s before joining Fairport Convention in 1967 as an original member. He leaves the band in 1969 and forms Matthews’ Southern Comfort, a country-tinged folk-rock group that includes Richard Thompson and other Fairport musicians. The group releases the album Matthews Southern Comfort and then Second Spring and Later That Same Year on UNI, the MCA label, before Matthews moves on again just as the project gains wider attention.

He returns to solo work with If You Could See Thro’ My Eyes in 1971, a self-produced album on Vertigo that features Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Keith Tippet and Tim Renwick among others. It is followed by Tigers Will Survive in 1972. He then forms Plainsong, which signs to Elektra and releases In Search of Amelia Earhart in 1972.

1970s solo work

Michael Nesmith produces Valley Hi in 1973, which includes a version of Steve Young’s “Seven Bridges Road”. Matthews again handles production on Some Days You Eat the Bear and Some Days the Bear Eats You in 1974, which features Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and David Lindley, and also includes Tom Waits’s “Ol’ 55”. He moves to CBS for Go For Broke in 1976 and Hit and Run in 1977. Stealin’ Home in 1978 gives him a US top ten hit with “Shake It”. His next album, Siamese Friends in 1979, does not sell strongly, and Spot of Interference follows in 1980, along with the best-of set Discreet Repeat.

Hi-Fi, later projects and collaborations

In the early 1980s, Matthews leaves Los Angeles for Seattle and forms Hi-Fi with David Surkamp of Pavlov’s Dog, along with Bruce Hazen, Garey Shelton and Bob Briley. The group releases the live mini-album Hi-Fi Demonstration Record in 1981 and the studio album Moods for Mallards in 1982, which includes a cover of Prince’s “When U Were Mine”. This is followed by Shook in 1984 and Walking a Changing Line in 1988, a set made up largely of Jules Shear songs.

He later records Pure and Crooked in 1990, Skeleton Keys in 1992, Dark Ride in 1994 and God Looked Down in 1996, all on Watermelon Records. A renewed Plainsong also appears in the 1990s, releasing Dark Side of the Room in 1992, Sister Flute in 1996, a live EP recorded in Austria in 1998, and New Place Now in 1999.

Compilations from across his career include Orphans and Outcasts, The Notebook Series and The Soul of Many Places. After moving to Amsterdam, he plays more live work and forms the Sandy Denny tribute band No Grey Faith with Jim Fogarty and Lindsay Gilmour; their album Secrets All Told includes Denny’s “Rising for the Moon”. Other releases include Iain AdVenture in 2000, A to B in 2001, the collaboration La Terre Commune with Elliott Murphy, and More Than a Song with Eliza Gilkyson. From 2003 he works with Dutch pianist and composer Egbert Derix.

Associated acts

Matthews’ career is closely linked with Fairport Convention, Matthews’ Southern Comfort and Plainsong, and he is also associated with Hamilton Pool, Iain Ad Venture, More Than a Song and The Matthews Baartmans Experience. His work moves between folk, folk-rock, rock, pop and country, with a long-running reputation built across albums, collaborations and live performance.