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Iain Matthews
Background information
Birth nameIan Matthews MacDonald
Also known asIan MacDonald, Ian Matthews, Iain Matthews
Born (1946-06-16) 16 June 1946 (age 77)
Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, England
GenresCountry rock, folk, pop, rock[1]
Occupation(s)Musician, singer-songwriter
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar
Years active1967–present
LabelsDecca/Deram, Polydor, Uni/MCA, Vertigo, Elektra, Columbia/CBS, Mushroom, Windham Hill, Mooncrest, Gold Castle, Perfect Pitch, Blue Rose, Brilliant, Watermelon, Omnivore, Fledg'ling, MK2
Websiteiainmatthews.nl

Iain Matthews (born Ian Matthews MacDonald, 16 June 1946) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He was an original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969 before leaving to form his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK number one in 1970 with Joni Mitchell's song "Woodstock".[2] In 1979 his recording of Terence Boylan's "Shake It" reached No. 13 on the US charts.

Born in Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, Matthews was known in the 1960s as Ian MacDonald, but changed his name to Ian Matthews (his mother's maiden name) in 1968[3] to avoid confusion with Ian McDonald of King Crimson, with whom Judy Dyble began working when she left Fairport. In 1989, he changed the spelling of his first name to Iain and has been known as Iain Matthews ever since.[4]

Influenced by both rock and roll and folk music, he has performed solo and as a member of various bands. He was a member of Fairport Convention during the early period when they were heavily influenced by American folk rock and sang on their first three albums before leaving in 1969. He initially embarked upon a solo career before forming the bands Matthews Southern Comfort and then Plainsong. Later in his career he was also a member of the bands Hi-Fi, No Grey Faith, and More Than A Song,[5] and in the 2000s has twice revived both Plainsong and Matthews Southern Comfort (MSC). He continues to tour regularly with the current version of MSC. A new MSC album "The New Mine" was released in March 2020, and a vinyl-only album "Fake Tan", recorded with Norwegian band The Salmon Smokers, was released in September 2020.

In a career spanning over fifty years he has featured on over 100 albums and in 2018 published an autobiography co-written with author and broadcaster Ian Clayton, "Thro’ My Eyes : A Memoir’’, about his life in the music industry.[6]

Origins

Matthews' family moved to Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, when he was twelve years old. On leaving school at sixteen, he initially worked as an apprentice signwriter for a local painting and decorating firm. During the British pop music explosion of the mid-1960s, he sang with several local bands in Scunthorpe and then moved to London in the spring of 1965, taking a job in a Carnaby Street shoe shop, Ravel. In 1966 he formed a trio, The Pyramid (later just Pyramid), a short-lived English surf music band, with Al Jackson and Steve Hiett (born 1940, died 2018), who later became a world-renowned fashion photographer. The Pyramid released one single, "Summer of Last Year" in January 1967, on Deram Records. A remaining song, "Me About You," surfaced on Matthews' Orphans & Outcasts Volume 3 compilation album in 1999.

Fairport Convention

In the winter of 1967, Matthews was recruited by Ashley Hutchings as a male vocalist for Fairport Convention, where he sang with Judy Dyble on their self-titled first album Fairport Convention and then with Sandy Denny on What We Did On Our Holidays. During the recording of Unhalfbricking in 1969, as Fairport increasingly drew their material from a traditional British folk repertoire, Matthews found out he had not been invited to a recording session and, after a short discussion with producer Joe Boyd and Ashley Hutchings, left the band and departed on a musical direction of his own.[5]

Matthews Southern Comfort

Main article: Matthews Southern Comfort

In 1969 Matthews recorded his debut solo album, Matthews' Southern Comfort, which was rooted in American country music and rockabilly. He made the album with ex-Fairport colleagues Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol and Ashley Hutchings, plus guitarist Mark Griffiths, drummers Ray Duffy and Gerry Conway, pedal steel guitarist Gordon Huntley, and keyboardists Dolly Collins and Roger Coulam. This was his first significant experience as a songwriter, although the band also performed Neil Young and Ian and Sylvia songs. He followed it up by forming a working band, Matthews Southern Comfort (using the name of his first album, but without the apostrophe), releasing two more albums in short succession, Second Spring (1970 – UK #52)[7] and Later That Same Year (1970).

The band went through various different line-ups and toured extensively for the next two years. They had one commercial success, with "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell which was a number one hit single in the UK Singles Chart in October 1970.[7] It received heavy airplay in Canada, reaching No. 5, as well as peaking at No. 23 on the Billboard singles charts in the United States in 1971. Afterwards, Matthews left Southern Comfort, who went on to release three albums of their own on Harvest Records.

Plainsong

In 1971, Matthews recorded two solo albums (If You Saw Thro' My Eyes & Tigers Will Survive), on Vertigo Records. Under the sponsorship of former Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith, and surrounded by likeminded British semi-folkies (notably another ex-Fairporter, Richard Thompson), he formed Plainsong with Andy Roberts, previously of The Liverpool Scene. The band's line-up consisted of Matthews, Roberts, guitarist Dave Richards and American bassist Bob Ronga.

In 1972 Plainsong released In Search of Amelia Earhart. The album included a cover of Dave McEnery's "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", plus a song by Matthews, "True Story of Amelia Earhart's Last Flight". The song is based on research that suggests that Earhart may have been spying on Japanese bases in the Pacific islands. It also included "Even the Guiding Light", an answer to Thompson's "Meet on the Ledge".

Moving around

After Plainsong collapsed due to a bandmate's alcoholism, and with his career now based in Los Angeles, Matthews released several more albums with ad hoc bands: Valley Hi (1973), produced by Michael Nesmith (formerly of the Monkees); Journeys from Gospel Oak and Some Days You Eat The Bear (1974); Go For Broke (1976) and Hit and Run (1977). None of these met with commercial success. Valley Hi featured a cover of the Steve Young song Seven Bridges Road, arranged by Iain Matthews and Nesmith, creating a multitracked harmony with all parts sung by Matthews. This version became famous after being covered live by the Eagles on 28 July 1980 and released on Eagles Live. With lack of success on his albums, Iain Matthews went from Elektra to Columbia Records, to the small Rockburgh label, where he scored a hit single in 1978 with a cover of Terence Boylan's "Shake It", which reached No. 13 on the US charts and No. 6 in Canada.

He had a moderately successful follow-up with Robert Palmer's "Give Me an Inch". However, the North American rights for his album Stealin' Home and its follow-up Siamese Friends were held by the small Canadian label Mushroom. When label-owner Shelly Siegel died in 1979, Matthews' association with that label came to an end. The song "Shake It" is heard at the beginning of the 1980 movie Little Darlings. It can also be heard on the radio in the game The Warriors from Rockstar Games.

Matthews' official web site states that at this point he "had been struggling for nearly 15 years now and was still living hand to mouth, with nothing to show for his efforts but a string of out-of-print albums, and the loyalty of those musicians and fans who shared his vision."[8] He moved from Los Angeles to Seattle, where he teamed up with David Surkamp, formerly of the St. Louis band Pavlov's Dog, to form the power pop band Hi-Fi, whose repertoire included Matthews' originals, but also Neil Young's "Mr. Soul" and Prince's "When You Were Mine". He worked in an A&R capacity at Island Records and then Windham Hill Records.

Later career

Starting in 1977, Fairport Convention held the annual Cropredy Festival. In the mid-1980s, there was interest in reviving the band and recording new material. Matthews was invited to perform with them as a part of the band, and in their other projects, at the 1986 Cropredy Festival. This led to Walking a Changing Line (1988) on Windham Hill, a tribute to Jules Shear of Jules and the Polar Bears.[9] Matthews then moved to Austin, Texas and recorded several albums for a series of German independent labels. He appeared with Andy Roberts at the 1992 Cambridge Folk Festival, which led to the first of what became several changed versions of Plainsong.

In 2000 Matthews moved to Amsterdam, where he became involved in independent music projects and collaborations, including the Sandy Denny tribute band No Grey Faith (an anagram of "Fotheringay," which was the name of the castle in which Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned, as well as the title of a song about the castle that Denny had recorded for Fairport Convention, and the name of a short-lived band Denny had led in the 1970s), and another revival of Plainsong. Moving to Horst in the south of the Netherlands, in 2008 he produced Joy Mining with the Dutch jazz ensemble, Searing Quartet. In September 2010, he released the first Matthews Southern Comfort album in 40 years and returned to a major record label.

Since 2003 Matthews has worked with Dutch pianist and composer Egbert Derix. They met when Matthews, a jazz fan, came to a concert of Derix's Searing Quartet in Cambrinus (Horst, The Netherlands). Matthews asked Derix to join him in his 2003 tour of his 1970 album If You Saw Thro' My Eyes. They played a series of concerts with Eric Coenen (bass), Arthur Lijten (drums) and Ad Vanderveen (guitar). After the tour Matthews and Derix started writing together, resulting in the 2008 album Joy Mining Matthews & Derix started their own label: MatriX. In 2012, the Iain Matthews/Egbert Derix album In the Now was released by Verve Records. Joy Mining and In the Now had separate releases in the United Kingdom and United States.

In December 2011 he performed as Matthews Southern Comfort with his Dutch band at the 2nd Great British Folk Festival at Butlins Skegness and performed a set of both old and new songs. In January 2014, Matthews toured as part of the Gene Clark No Other band, performing Gene Clark's album No Other with other singers such as Robin Pecknold of the Fleet Foxes

In January–February 2015 Matthews and Derix toured in California to promote the US releases of their albums. Dutch filmmakers Peter Jong and Olivier Hamaker made a documentary about the making of In the Now. Matthews can also be heard on Egbert Derix' solo album Paintings in Minor Lila (2012) on which the music of British progressive rock band Marillion is featured. The album has contributions by Matthews, Marillion singers Fish and Steve Hogarth, and Supertramp saxophonist John Helliwell. Matthews was guest vocalist in 2011 on the Helliwell/Derix Quintet tour in The Netherlands. Matthews and Derix co-wrote eight songs for Matthews's solo album The Art of Obscurity (2013).[citation needed]

Thro' My Eyes: A Memoir

In 2018 Iain Matthews released an autobiographical book Thro’ My Eyes: A Memoir. The book was co-written with Featherstone-based author and broadcaster, Ian Clayton.

In Clayton’s preface to the book, he tells of one day in 2010 getting an email out of the blue from Iain Matthews who had read the original version of his book Bringing It all Back Home,[10] a work described by Record Collector magazine as "One of the best books about popular music ever written". Matthews told Clayton that he was considering publishing an autobiography and asked him if he would consider writing it. Several years went by before the project eventually came to fruition, though not as a straightforward biography but as co-written book based on multiple sessions of working together for several days at a time to capture all the information and memories.

Thro’ My Eyes: A Memoir was published by Pontefract-based Route Publishing in August 2018[11] in two editions: a Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition which also included Thro’ My Eyes, an exclusive 2CD compilation of 23 songs from throughout Matthews’ career. The book is a very open and honest account of Matthews’ life and musical career: from his humble beginnings in Barton-upon Humber and Scunthorpe, to moving to London in the 1960s and joining Fairport Convention, forming Matthews Southern Comfort in 1970 and having his only #1 hit with their version of Joni Mitchell’s "Woodstock", forming Plainsong with Andy Roberts in 1972, spending years in America as a solo artist and then coming back to Europe in 2000 and still making albums and touring to this day. Each chapter is preceded by the lyrics of one of his songs.

In the book, Matthews also talks about watching and playing football as a boy in Scunthorpe, his failed trial as potential professional footballer with Bradford Park Avenue, and his life long love of Manchester United. A live concert recording of Plainsong in Paris in 2007[12] reveals him telling the audience that the words of his song "Busby's Babes" from the 1990 album Pure And Crooked are proudly displayed in the Manchester United Museum.

Matthews and Clayton promoted the book in 2019 by undertaking a concert tour of selected venues in the UK. Entitled "Words And Music", the tour covered some 11 venues in England and Scotland at which both Matthews and Clayton talked about various episodes from the book and Matthews performed live as solo artist; he was joined on stage for one night of the tour by former Plainsong bandmate Andy Roberts, at The Greys in Brighton.

A paperback version of the book, with new artwork and an updated discography, was published by Route in March 2021.[13]

Videography

Ian Matthews

Iain Matthews

83-minute video retrospective by Michael Solomon documenting his time with Fairport Convention, Matthews Southern Comfort and Plainsong, and containing rare solo performances and interviews.

Matthews Southern Comfort

More Than A Song

Ad Vanderveen And Friends

Hi-Fi

With Egbert Derix

With Nanci Griffith

Iain Matthews plays on this live performance filmed at The Armadillo in Glasgow, 26/27 November 1998.

Discography

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The Pyramid

Iain Matthews’ first recording (45rpm single)

Solo albums

Box sets

Limited edition 5CD archival box set containing Live Alone, Intimate Wash, Camouflage, Nights In Manhattan And Points West, plus a fifth, then unreleased CD, Woodshedding.

4CD box set containing remastered versions of Orphans And Outcasts Volumes 1-3, plus a fourth CD of newly curated outtakes and demo recordings.

Slimline series

2-in-1 reissues / remasters

Groups

Fairport Convention

Matthews Southern Comfort

Plainsong

Hamilton Pool

Hi-Fi

No Grey Faith

More Than A Song

Iain Matthews & The Salmon Smokers

The Matthews Baartmans Conspiracy

Collaborations with other artists

With Julian Dawson

With Ad Vanderveen

With Elliott Murphy

With Elliott Murphy and Olivier Durand

With Searing Quartet

With Egbert Derix

With Andy Roberts

With Jim Fogarty

As a featured artist

With Nanci Griffith

With Nick Vernier Band

With Nick Vernier Band and Emitt Rhodes

As a guest artist

Matthews featured as a guest artist on the following albums, either singing lead vocals, harmony vocals or playing guitar.

Unique compilation albums

Compilations containing unique Matthews material not available elsewhere:

Line Records compilations

In addition, several tracks recorded in the 1980s as Ian Matthews appear on a Line Records compilation series, Der Sampler.

Blue Rose Records compilations

Matthews tracks appeared on various Blue Rose Records compilation albums, either as a solo artist, with Plainsong, or with Elliott Murphy.

CD1 with Julian Dawson "Rain On The Roof", "Can't Buy Me Love"
CD2 Iain Matthews solo "The Frame", "Southern Wind"; with Julian Dawson "Crazy Love"; with Julian Dawson & Ad Vanderveen "Funk And Fire"; with Elliott Murphy & Olivier Durand "Blind Willie McTell"
CD3 The Blue Rose Rockestra - Iain Matthews "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Brown Eyed Girl","I Believe In You", "For What It’s Worth/Feeling Alright"

Blue Rose Nuggets series

Unique Iain Matthews tracks also appear on several Blue Rose Nuggets compilation albums:[19]

Other compilation albums

Iain Matthews tracks appear on some 90 compilation CDs, a listing of which can be found on the Discogs website.[20]

The Matthews Southern Comfort 1970 #1 UK single "Woodstock" appears on over 200 compilation CDs, a listing of which can be found on the Discogs website.[21]

And various tracks from Plainsong also appear on 17 compilation CDs, a listing of which can be found at the following link on the Discogs website.[22]

Billboard/RPM charts

Hot 100 Singles

Easy Listening (Adult Contemporary)

References

  1. ^ Chris Woodstra (8 October 1996). "The Seattle Years 1978–1984 – Ian Matthews | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. ^ Nettleton, Paul. "Old music: Matthews Southern Comfort – Woodstock : The second best Fairport Convention singer secured a UK No 1 only to move on, leaving solo success behind". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  3. ^ Iain Matthews' 2018 biography, Thro' My Eyes: p.72
  4. ^ Iain Matthews, Thro' My Eyes: A Memoir, p.227
  5. ^ a b Unterberger, Richie. "Iain Matthews Interview". Richieunterberger.com.
  6. ^ "Website for Iain Matthews memoir". Thro'My Eyes: A Memoir. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  7. ^ a b Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 355. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  8. ^ Iain Matthews website biography Archived 6 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Hartenbach, Brett, "Walking a Changing Line Review," AllMusic
  10. ^ "Bringing It All Back Home". Route Online. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  11. ^ "Thro My Eyes: A Memoir". Route Online.
  12. ^ Plainsong, soundboard recording from La Pomme d'Eve, Paris, 15 December 2007
  13. ^ "Thro My Eyes: A Memoir : Route Online".
  14. ^ Although identical musically, the MK2 release has entirely different artwork to the Omnivore and Fledg'ling versions.
  15. ^ "Fairport Convention - Fairport Convention". Discogs.com. 1969. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  16. ^ "Matthews' Southern Comfort - Second Spring". Discogs.com. 1970. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
  17. ^ Unique release on this CD in 1998; since released on the "Sparkler" album
  18. ^ 'Tree Of Life' is the first release of The Ever After Project. A special 17-track compilation album featuring artists from the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, in support of the Dutch Liver Patients Association (NLV).
  19. ^ The Blue Rose Nuggets series is an exclusive set of compilation albums produced by German label Blue Rose Records and only available via mail order. The samplers also contain unpublished recordings, studio outtakes, live recordings or even videos. The series started in 2002
  20. ^ "Iain Matthews". Discogs.com. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  21. ^ "Matthews' Southern Comfort". Discogs.com. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  22. ^ "Plainsong". Discogs.com. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  23. ^ The US single on Mushroom Records listed the song title as "Give Me An Inch", per the original version by Robert Palmer; other versions of the single outside the US listed the song as "Gimme An Inch Girl" per the title on the Stealin' Home album.

External links

Fairport Convention
Authority control databases
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