Iain Matthews

For the drummer with Kasabian, see Ian Matthews (drummer).
Iain Matthews
Background information
Birth name Iain Matthews McDonald
Also known as Ian McDonald, Ian Matthews, Iain Matthews
Born (1946-06-16) 16 June 1946
Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England
Genres Folk rock, rockabilly, country rock, soft rock,[1] alternative rock, surf, jazz
Occupation(s) Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments Vocals, guitar
Years active 1967–present
Labels Decca/Deram, Polydor, Vertigo, Elektra, Columbia, Mushroom, Windham Hill, Mooncrest, Brilliant
Associated acts Fairport Convention, Plainsong, Matthews Southern Comfort
Website iainmatthews.com
Notable instruments
guitar

Iain Matthews (born Iain Matthew McDonald, 16 June 1946) is an English musician and songwriter. He was a singer with Fairport Convention, before forming his own band Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK number one in 1970 with a cover of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock".

Born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, Matthews was known in the 1960s first as Ian McDonald, then as the 1960s progressed, as Ian Matthews. In 1989, he reverted to the original spelling of his first name.

Influenced by both rock and roll and folk music, he has performed mainly as a solo act, although he was a member of Fairport Convention during the early period when they were heavily influenced by American West Coast folk rock. He later had a solo career and fronted the bands Plainsong, Hi-Fi, No Grey Faith, More Than A Song and Matthews Southern Comfort.[2]

Origins

Matthews grew up in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He played football with English team Bradford Park Avenue. During the British pop music explosion of the mid-1960s, he sang with several minor bands and moved to London in 1966, taking a job in a Carnaby Street shoe shop. That year he formed a trio, The Pyramid, an English short-lived surf music band, which recorded 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 in 1999.

Fairport Convention

In the spring of 1967, Matthews was recruited by Ashley Hutchings as a male vocalist for Fairport Convention, where he duetted first with Judy Dyble, and then with Sandy Denny. In 1969, as Fairport drew increasingly from a British traditional folk repertoire, Matthews found out he had not been invited to a recording session and, after a short discussion with Ashley Hutchings, departed toward a musical direction of his own.[2]

Matthews Southern Comfort

With Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, and Ashley Hutchings from Fairport Convention, guitarist Mark Griffiths, drummer Gerry Conway, pedal steel player Gordon Huntley, and keyboardists Dolly Collins and Roger Coulam, Matthews recorded his debut solo album, Matthews' Southern Comfort, whose sound was rooted in American country music and rockabilly, in 1969. This was his first significant experience as a songwriter, although the band also covered the likes of Neil Young and Ian and Sylvia. He followed it up by forming a working band using the name of his first album, Matthews Southern Comfort (without the apostrophe), then released subsequent albums Second Spring (1969 – UK #52)[3] and Later That Same Year (1970).

The band went through several different line-ups and toured extensively for the next two years, to general critical acclaim. They had one commercial success: a 1970 cover version of "Woodstock" (written by Joni Mitchell) was a number one hit single in the UK Singles Chart.[3] It experienced 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 split with Southern Comfort, who went on to release three albums of their own on Harvest Records.

Plainsong

In 1971, Matthews recorded two acclaimed 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 a who's who of likeminded British semi-folkies (notably another ex-Fairporter, Richard Thompson), he formed Plainsong, who signed to Elektra Records.

In 1972 Plainsong released In Search of Amelia Earhart, which solidified Matthews' songwriting reputation with the critics, if not with the general public. The album included a cover of Dave McEnery's "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", plus a song of Matthews' own, "True Story of Amelia Earhart's Last Night", based on research that suggests that Earhart on her round-the-world flight may have been spying on Japanese bases in the Pacific islands. It also included "Even the Guiding Light", a spiritually positive answer to Thompson's powerful but bleak "Meet on the Ledge".

"Bouncing around"

After Plainsong collapsed due to a bandmate's alcohol problem, and with his career now based in Los Angeles, Matthews released several more albums with ad hoc bands: Journeys from Gospel Oak (1972); Valley Hi (1973), produced by Michael Nesmith, (formerly of the Monkees); Some Days You Eat The Bear (1974); Go For Broke (1975). None of these met with commercial success. He bounced from Elektra to Columbia Records, to the small Rockburgh label, where he finally scored a hit single in 1978 with a cover of Terence Boylan's "Shake It", which reached No. 13 on the US charts. He had a moderately successful follow-up covering Robert Palmer's "Gimme an Inch". However, the North American rights for his album "Stealin' Home" were held by the small Canadian label Mushroom. Label-owner Shelly Siegel died suddenly in 1979, leaving the label rudderless. 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."[4] He moved from Los Angeles to then-inexpensive 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 covers of Neil Young's "Mr. Soul" and Prince's "When You Were Mine". Neither this nor a return to solo recording in England turned his luck. He worked for a while in an A&R capacity at Island Records and then New Age Windham Hill Records.

Later career

Since 1974, Fairport Convention had been staging the annual Cropredy Festival; since 1979, this annual reunion had represented the height of their activity in that period as a band, but in the mid-1980s several members became interested in reviving the band more fully, stimulating creativity as a group and in recording new material. Matthews was invited to perform with them as a part of the band, and in their other side-projects, at the 1986 Cropredy Festival. This led to Walking a Changing Line (1988) on Windham Hill Records, an unlikely album-length tribute to Jules Shear of Jules and the Polar Bears. Matthews found himself moving to Austin, Texas, and recording several albums for a series of German independent labels. It also led to his first truly solo performances: his previous "solo" outings had always been as a frontman for a one-shot band. He appeared with Andy Roberts at the 1992 Cambridge Folk Festival, which led to the first of what became several changed versions of Plainsong.

Since that time, Matthews has had a moderately successful career, releasing records on a number of small labels in Germany, the UK, and the US, before moving to Amsterdam in 2000, where he continues to be involved in various indy projects and collaborations, including the Sandy Denny tribute band "No Grey Faith" and another revival of Plainsong. Moving to Horst in the south of the Netherlands, in 2008 he produced a new album, Joy Mining, in collaboration with the Dutch jazz combo Searing Quartet. In this album he could work with his lifelong love for jazz. September 2010 saw the first Matthews Southern Comfort album in 40 years, and Matthews' return to a major label.

Since 2003 Iain Matthews worked with Dutch pianist and composer, Egbert Derix. They met when Iain, a big jazz fan, came to a concert of Derix' Searing Quartet in Cambrinus (Horst, The Netherlands). Iain asked Derix to join him in his 2003 jubilee tour of his 1970 album 'If you saw tro my eyes', they played a series of concerts with Eric Coenen (bass), Arthur Lijten (drums) & Ad Vanderveen (guitar). After the tour Matthews & Derix started writing together resulting in the 2008 album Joy Mining by Iain Matthews and Derix'Searing Quartet. Matthews & Derix started their own label: MATRIX. In 2012 the Iain Matthews/Egbert Derix album 'In the Now' was released by VERVE. 'Joy Mining' and 'In the Now' also had separate releases in the United Kingdom and United States. In January-February 2015 Matthews & 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'. Iain can also be heard on Egbert Derix' solo album 'Paintings in Minor Lila'(2012) on which the music of British Rock band Marillion is featured, the album has contributions by Iain, Marillion singers Fish and Steve Hogarth and Supertramp saxplayer John Helliwell. Iain was guest vocalist in 2011 on the Helliwell/Derix Quintet tour in The Netherlands. Matthews & Derix co-wrote 8 songs for Matthews last solo album 'The Art of Obscurity'(2013)

In December 2011 he performed as Matthews Southern Comfort with his Dutch band at the 2nd Great British Folk Fesival at Butlins Skegness and performed a set of both old and new songs.

Matthews is a season ticket holder at Scunthorpe United football club.

Discography

The following is a partial discography; a comprehensive discography is available on Matthews' personal website.

Singles

Albums

Solo

Fairport Convention

Matthews Southern Comfort

Plainsong

Hi-Fi

Iain Matthews and Julian Dawson

No Grey Faith

Iain Matthews and Elliott Murphy

Iain Matthews and Searing Quartet

Iain Matthews and Nick Vernier Band

Iain Matthews and Egbert Derix

Iain Matthews and Nick Vernier Band with Emitt Rhodes

Iain Matthews and Ad van der Veen

Billboard Hot 100 Singles

Billboard Easy Listening(Adult Contemporary Chart)

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Chris Woodstra (8 October 1996). "The Seattle Years 1978–1984 – Ian Matthews | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 Richie Unterberger interview
  3. 1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 355. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  4. ↑ Iain Matthews website biography

External links

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