Iain Matthews
b. Ian Matthews McDonald, 16 June 1946, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Matthews sang with small-time Lincolnshire bands, the Classics, the Rebels and the Imps, before moving to London in 1966, as one of the vocalists in a British surfing band Pyramid, who recorded a few tracks for Deram Records. To supplement his income, Iain worked in a shoe shop in London's famous Carnaby Street. 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 appeared on their early breakthrough album, WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY, 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 And Tich. After making a solo album MATTHEW'S SOUTHERN COMFORT, for MCA in 1970, a group, also called Matthew's Southern Comfort, was formed around him, and released two more country/rock albums, SECOND SPRING and LATER THAT SAME YEAR. The group also topped the UK singles chart with their version of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock. By 1971, Matthews had left the band, which continued with little success as Southern Comfort. Matthews, meanwhile, signed a solo deal with Vertigo, releasing two excellent but underrated solo albums, IF YOU SAW THROUGH MY EYES and TIGERS WILL SURVIVE, both featuring many of his ex-colleagues from Fairport, before forming Plainsong, an ambitious quartet which included Andy Roberts (ex-Liverpool Scene), Dave Richards and Bob Ronga. Matthews was still obligated to make another album for Vertigo, but was unwilling to commit Plainsong to the label. As a result, he was given a small budget to make a contractual commitment album, JOURNEYS FROM GOSPEL OAK, which Vertigo did not release but instead sold to Mooncrest, a label with which the album's producer Sandy Robertson 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, before Bob Ronga left the band. During the recording of a second album (still unreleased, but supposedly titled PLAINSONG III, referring to the membership of the band rather than a third 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. An excellent solo album (organized and encouraged by Nesmith), VALLEY HI, was followed by SOME DAYS YOU EAT THE BEAR, which included the Tom Waits song, Ol' 55, which Matthews recorded a month earlier than label-mates The Eagles. He then signed with CBS for GO FOR BROKE and HIT AND RUN, which were neither commercially successful nor artistically satisfactory. By 1978, Matthews was again ‘available for hire’, at which point Rockburgh (which was owned by Sandy Robertson) offered to re-sign him. The first fruit of this reunion was STEALING HOME, on which the backing musicians included Bryn Haworth and Phil Palmer on guitar, and Pete Wingfield on piano. Robertson 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, but swiftly vanished with little trace in the UK. 
In 1980 came a third album for Rockfield, A SPOT OF INTERFERENCE, which was an ill-judged attempt to climb aboard the new wave. This also disappeared, and later that same year came DISCREET REPEAT, a reasonably selected double album Best Of featuring post-Southern Comfort material, but this marked the parting of the waves between Matthews and Robertson. The former formed an unlikely band called Hi-Fi in Seattle, where he lived 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. 
In 1983, Matthews signed with Polydor in Germany for a new album, SHOOK, which surprisingly remains unreleased in Britain, and more importantly from the artistic point of view, the USA. Matthews threw in the towel and took a job as an A&R man for Island Music in Los Angeles, but was made redundant in 1985. An appearance at the 1986 Fairport Convention Cropredy Festival in Oxfordshire 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 STEALING HOME. 
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, and later that same year, Matthews reunited with his Plainsong-era colleague, Andy Roberts, for a very popular appearance at Cambridge Folk Festival. By 1992, Goldcastle had gone out of business, leaving Matthews, an exceptional vocalist with excellent taste in both self-composed material and especially in cover versions, once again without a recording contract. In 1993 Matthews and Roberts released DARK SIDE OF THE ROOM under the Plainsong monicker, which was funded by a German record-maker and supporter.