After a 60-year career so far, including fronting Fairport Convention, Iain Matthews will be releasing new solo album, How Much Is Enough?, his 53rd or 54th release. Released by Sunset Blvd. Records in October, How Much Is Enough? finds Matthews embracing his many interests in musical genres, but also more recent influences including Elliott Smith and Hiss Golden Messenger. It fuses acoustic and electric instrumentation. Matthews will be touring the East Coast this autumn.
Matthews says from his longtime home in The Netherlands:
I just felt that I needed to make one more solo album as a farewell gift. But how does a songwriter retire? I honestly don’t know how to stop being a songwriter and don’t know if I ever will.
Matthews moved to London during the British Pop explosion of the mid 1960s, where he was recruited as an original member of Fairport Convention, singing on their first three albums. Soon after leaving Fairport, his band Matthews Southern Comfort had a UK number one with Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” which was also a hit in the US and Canada. After an album with semi-Folk outfit Plainsong and a move to L.A., Matthews scored another North American hit with Terence Boylan’s “Shake It.”
Subsequently, Matthews worked as an A&R exec, was involved in Fairport Convention reunions and spin-offs and, after spells in Texas and Seattle, relocated to the Netherlands. From there, he’s continued to record and tour both solo and with a revived Matthews Southern Comfort. In 2018, he released his autobiography Thro’ My Eyes: A Memoir, co-written with author/broadcaster Ian Clayton.
The songs that would become How Much Is Enough? began during pandemic lockdown, comprising both solo Matthew’s compositions and co-writes with longtime Dutch collaborator/Producer BJ Baartmans (on “It’s Complicated”), frequent tourmate Steve Postell of The Immediate Family (“Santa Fe Line”), former Plainsong bandmate Andy Roberts (“I Walk”), and Freddy Holm of Norwegian band The Salmon Smokers (“Rhythm and Blues”).
Recorded at Baartmans’ studio, the 13-track How Much Is Enough? is more band-oriented than much of Matthews’ recent output, and includes backing vocals from his daughter.
He comments on his songwriting:
I tend not to make things up – I try to write from fact, as much as I can. Sometimes, I’ll be watching TV, and someone will say something, and I’ll just write a line down and that will become a song title or the theme for a chorus.
So many songwriters get in this little bubble and only write about themselves. I try to do more than that. I write about Hank Williams; I write about Christopher Columbus. If it makes sense to me and it feels right, I’ll write a song about it.
