Born 16 Jun 1946, in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Changed name to Ian Matthews, then to Iain Matthews, both names are used for releases.
Matthews 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 and forming his own band, Matthews Southern Comfort, which had a UK number one in 1970 with a cover version of Joni Mitchell’s song Woodstock. In 1971, Matthews recorded two solo albums on Vertigo and in 1972, 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. 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. In 1979 his cover of Terence Boylan’s Shake It reached No. 13 on the US charts. 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). Since 2003 Matthews has worked with Dutch pianist and composer Egbert Derix. 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. 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.