Iain Matthews - Later Career

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 Holland, 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. Matthews is a season ticket holder at Scunthorpe United.

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.