Iain Mathews

IAIN MATTHEWS

Iain Matthews was born Ian Matthews McDonald on June 16th 1946 in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire England in a family with two elder brothers. After leaving school he started working as an interior decorator before moving to London in 1966, as one of the vocalists in a British surfing band Pyramid who recorded a single for Deram Records called " The Summer of Last Year " in 1967. To supplement his income, Iain worked in a shoe shop in London's famous Carnaby Street. Through producer Joe Boyd he learnt of a vacancy for a vocalist in Fairport Convention, which he joined in 1967 before they had recorded (and before Sandy Denny joined them). He appeared on the group's first single " If I Had A Ribbon Bow ", released on TRACK and produced by Joe Boyd, and on their debut album on Polydor. Fairport then moved to Island Records in 1968, and Matthews is on their early breakthrough album, What We Did On Our Holidays, on which singer Judy Dyble had been replaced by Sandy Denny (one of many good songs on that album was " Book Song " written by Matthews and Richard Thompson), but left the group during the recording of mid-1969's Unhalfbricking, because it had become obvious to him that the group's new-found traditional folk/rock direction would involve him far less than its previous contemporary " underground " work.

Matthews (who had changed his surname to avoid confusion with saxophonist Ian McDonald of King Crimson) then signed with starmakers Howard And Blaikley, who had been involved in the success story of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. He made a solo album Matthews Southern Comfort, for MCA in 1970 with songs (many written by himself) fitting his beautifully pitched and somewhat sad voice. " Colorado Spring Eternal " with Thompson on guitar was a minor hit and Matthews formed a band also called Matthews Southern Comfort because he felt he was not ready for a solo career yet. In a period of less than a year the band made two excellent albums: Second Spring and Later That Same Year. By surprise, they topped he UK singles chart with their version of Joni Mitchell's " Woodstock ". Growing tensions within the group (bass players and stuff) had Matthews losing faith and on November 26, 1970 he left the band while " Woodstock " was still in the charts and before the release of Later That Same Year.

He then signed a solo deal with Vertigo, releasing two excellent solo albums, If You Saw Thro' My Eyes and Tigers Will Survive, both featuring many of his ex-colleagues from Fairport. Matthews did the production himself and today If You Saw still stands out as one of the highlights of his career. The album was critically acclaimed and sold rather well. To promote it he toured America for the first time with a band consisting of Richard Thompson, Andy Roberts and bass player Dave Richards. Tigers was recorded in two halves, before and after the tour and, according to Matthews the album was too hastily made and lacking enough strong songs, but in fact it still sounds excellent. Phil Spector's " Da Doo Ron Ron " scored a minor hit in America. Iain was very pleased with the band he toured with in America and he wanted to form a permanent group - Richard Thompson had just left Fairport Convention and didn't want to commit himself again, but both Andy Roberts and Dave Richards said yes, as did the American percussion player Bob Ronga, who had been a roadie during their tour. In November 1971 they met in Matthews' Highgate flat and decided that if they could come up with an original acoustic arrangement of the Association song " Along comes Mary ", they would take off as a group. Although they never recorded that particular song, Plainsong was born. Matthews was still obligated to make another album for Vertigo, but the record company was unwilling to commit Plainsong to the label (why take Plainsong when we already have Iain Matthews). As a result, he was given a small budget to make a contractual commitment album, Journeys From Gospel Oak (recorded in just five days and a.o. containing cover versions of songs by Gene Clark, Paul Siebel and Merle Haggard), which Vertigo did not release but instead sold to Mooncrest, a label with which the album's producer Sandy Roberton was connected. Originally released in 1974, it became one of the earliest compact disc releases to feature Matthews' post-Fairport work. Plainsong then signed with Elektra and released the magnificent In Search Of Amelia Earhart in 1972. Plainsong was a democratic band, but not without problems and it did not take long before Bob Ronga left the band. During the recording of a second album Matthews and Richards apparently fell out. To continue would have been difficult, and Matthews accepted an invitation to work with ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith in Los Angeles and he and his wife and their daughter Darcy (named after the song Darcy Farrow) moved to California - the West Coast being the place where all the music he loved came from. An excellent solo album (organized and encouraged by Nesmith), Valley Hi, was the result. The album had a very strong countryrock sound due to Nesmith's band and production work. Matthews was not particularly pleased with the album and decided to choose the musicians for his next record himself. Session men like David Lindley, David Dickey and Steely Dan's Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter assisted him on 1974's Some Days You Eat The Bear...Some Days The Bear Eats You. Quite rightly Matthews was very pleased with the album, but Elektra finished his contract. Journeys From Gospel Oak was now finally released by Mooncrest , but during 1975 Matthews remained without a label and his wife and daughter had gone back to England .

He then signed with CBS for Go For Broke, recorded in Nashville. This album had a couple of highlights like Jesse Colin Young's " Darkness, Darkness " and his own " Lonely Hunter ", but the whole thing was rather disappointing .The second CBS album, recorded in Hollywood and called Hit And Run, is full of songs that sounded as if they were made for American FM-radio and lacked the melancholic atmosphere so typical of his previous recordings. In this period he toured with a group called Motion (Jay Lacey, Don Whaley, Steven Hooks, Bobby Wright and Bobby Guidotti) and his music had become jazzier under the influence of people like Herbie Hancock. Both CBS albums were commercially unsuccessful and by 1978, Matthews was again " available for hire ", at which point Rockburgh (which was owned by Sandy Roberton) offered to re-sign him. The first fruit of this reunion was Stealin' Home, on which the backing musicians included Bryn Haworth and Phil Palmer on guitar, Steeleye Span's bass player Rick Kemp and Pete Wingfield on piano.The album was not much better than Hit And Run, but Roberton licensed the album for North America to a small Canadian label, Mushroom, which had been financed by the discovery of the group Heart. "Shake It" was excerpted as a US single and reached the Top 10, but the founder and owner of Mushroom died suddenly, and the company virtually collapsed. A follow-up by Matthews, Siamese Friends, was already contracted to Mushroom, and was released in 1979. Matthews toured Europe and America regularly accompanied by bands changing personnel as well as names (the Polaroids, the Great Buildings), but artistically he had seen much better times, which became apparent in 1980 with the release of a third album for Rockburgh, A Spot Of Interference, which was an ill-judged attempt to climb aboard the new wave. Later that same year came Discreet Repeat, a reasonably selected double album Best Of featuring post-Southern Comfort material, but, like many other small labels in that period, Sandy Roberton's company went bankrupt in 1981. Matthews moved to Seattle, where he formed an unlikely band called Hi-Fi with ex-Pavlov's Dog vocalist David Surkamp. Two more contrasting vocal styles than those of Surkamp and Matthews could hardly be imagined, but the group made a live mini-album, Demonstration Records in 1982, and followed it with a full-length studio album, Moods For The Mallards, both were released in the UK on the small independent label Butt Records and, influenced by a man like Gary Numan and his experimenting with electronics, were intended to be danced at rather than listened to. In 1983 Roberton had Matthews sign with Polydor in Germany for a new album, SHOOK, released in 1984 but this surprisingly remained unreleased in Britain, and more importantly from the artistic point of view, the USA. Matthews threw in the towel, had to sell his guitars and most of his record collection and went back to California where it took him nine months to find a job as an A&R man for Island Music in Los Angeles, where he worked with groups like the Long Ryders and Rain Parade , but was made redundant in 1985.

An appearance at the Fairport Convention Cropredy Festival in Oxfordshire in August 1986 (together with Fairport he did a variety of songs from his career and together with Richard Thompson, Clive Gregson and Christine Collister an impressive a capella version of " Woodstock ") convinced Matthews that he should return to singing, even though he had just ended a period of unemployment by starting to work for the noted new age label, Windham Hill. After a frustrating year during which it became clear that Matthews and the label were creatively at odds, Matthews left, but only after recording a vocal album for the predominantly instrumental label, Walking A Changing Line released in 1988, on which he interpreted a number of songs written by Jules Shear (ex-Funky Kings and Jules & The Polar Bears). While this was his best album to date according to Matthews, it sold little better than anything since Stealin' Home, but it was apparent that the musical idiom he had returned to suited his voice much better and held a promise for the future. In the album notes a credit to Fairport is to be found " for helping rekindling the flame ", indicating that the Cropredy appearance should be regarded as the beginning of Matthew's second spring.

In 1989, Matthews relocated to Austin, Texas, where he linked up with Mark Hallman, a guitarist and producer who had worked on Changing Line. A cassette-only album by the duo, Iain Matthews Live, was made for sale at gigs, and Matthews signed in 1990 with US independent label Goldcastle, to which several comparative veterans, including Joan Baez and Karla Bonoff, were also contracted. Pure & Crooked was released in 1990 (Ian changed to Iain to reflect his Gaelic roots) and proved Iain's revival: alongside tasteful covers like Peter Gabriel's " Mercy Street " were some fine songs by himself like " Rains of '62 " and " Like Dominoes " to prove that he got rid of his writer's block. For the first time in his career he started to do solo concerts because there was not too much work and the revenues were low. At first he did songs that would not ask too much of his limited skills on the guitar, but over the years he would become a very competent player.

Later that same year, Matthews reunited with his Plainsong-era colleague, Andy Roberts, for a very popular appearance at Cambridge Folk Festival. This led to regular gigs together and the feeling that they could cooperate very well brought about the resurfacing of Plainsong - IM , Roberts, Mark Griffiths and singer-songwriter Julian Dawson recorded The Dark Side Of The Room in the summer of 1992. The album was funded by a German record-maker and supporter and contained a number of strong songs and the harmonies were excellent, but the whole thing was a bit too laid-back. The group worked on a part time basis with both IM and Dawson concentrating on their solo careers and Roberts continuing to write film music.

By 1992, Goldcastle had gone out of business and Matthews recorded an album for German Line Records: 1992's Skeleton Keys, once again produced by Mark Hallman and filled entirely with songs by himself like " The Ties We Break "and the beautiful " Compass and Chart ", in which the story of captain Benjamin Riley represents the story of Matthew's career.The minimal use of electronic instruments had been replaced by an enterily acoustic sound, which resulted in a very strong album. He then signed with Watermelon, releasing The Dark Ride in 1994. This very open and personal record brought us some of his best songs like the title song about the darkest period in his life i.e. the years he had stopped performing, and " Tigers Will Survive Part II " about his daughter Darcy, along with a glorious version of Tim Buckley's "Morning Glory".

The same year Plainsong launched a new album called Voices Electric with highlights like " Christoforo's Eyes ", " Voices ", " The Rat and the Snake " this is an impressive piece of work. To add even more to all his activities Matthews in his home town Austin teamed up with his friend and producer Mark Hallman and a young and talented singer-songwriter called Michael Fracasso to form Hamilton Pool; they released a country-rock flavoured album in 1995 titled Return To Zero. Shortly after that Fracasso left the band, but he returned and later on David Halley joined them as well.

God Looked Down (again solely with own songs) was released in the summer of 1996. Again this is a very strong album, with a different sound (more electric) and is highlighted by " Alone Again Blues ", " The Power of Blue " and " So Many Eyes ". In September 1996 Plainsong launched Sister Flute, with excellent Matthews songs like " People's Park " (about Woody Guthrie) and " Spirits ", but after a short tour to promote the album Julian Dawson left the band to concentrate on his solo career, to be replaced by Clive Gregson (of Any Trouble, Gregson&Collister and Richard Thompson-band fame). In the meantime Matthews produced an album for Watermelon by Eric Taylor (who had made an LP Shameless Love in 1981) on which he sang harmonies as well. The two toured Holland and Belgium in April and May 1997.

Today Iain Matthews lives in Amsterdam, Holland. He is regarded as an exceptional vocalist with an excellent taste in both interpreting songs from others and creating his own material. Over the years he managed to stay loyal to his own musical ideas despite the fact that this meant no real commercial success and he feels that on his most recent albums he was able to do his own thing, unlike many things he did in the past.

2000, Iain released with Elliott Murphy La terre Commune. The album was recorded last April in Le Havre. Working with Murphy's guitar player, Olivier Durand, and drummer Florent Barbier, the two cut thirteen songs. The results were far greater than anyone had hoped or expected. " La Terre Commune " is a superb album, intensely personal and full of masterful storytelling, poetic and introspective lyrics for which both Murphy and Matthews are well known. It's quite simply one of the finest albums of either's incomparable careers.

2001, A Tiniest Wham is the new studio album of living legend IAIN MATTHEWS. The album contains another 12 great Bradley Kopp produced tunes, more acoustic than his previous recordings, but full of great melodies. The legend lives on !