Iain Matthews (and from the late 1960s until 1989 known as Ian Matthews) is… Read Full Bio ↴Iain Matthews (and from the late 1960s until 1989 known as Ian Matthews) is an English musician and songwriter. A member of Fairport Convention during their early period, Ian Matthews had a successful solo career and fronted the bands Plainsong and Matthews' Southern Comfort.

He was born Iain Matthew McDonald, 16 June 1946, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Influenced by both rock and roll and folk music, he has performed mainly as a solo act, although he was a member of Fairport Convention during the early period when they were heavily influenced by American West Coast folk rock. He later had a solo career and fronted the bands Plainsong and Matthews' Southern Comfort.

Matthews grew up in a working-class family in Scunthorpe. He sang with several minor bands during the British pop music explosion of the mid-1960s. He moved to London in 1966, taking a job in a Carnaby Street shoe shop. He recorded a couple of singles there in 1967 with a pop band called Pyramid.

Not long afterwards, he was recruited by Ashley Hutchings as a male vocalist for Fairport Convention, where he duetted first with Judy Dyble, but more famously with Sandy Denny. In 1969, as Fairport's music veered much more toward British folk influences, Matthews made the decision to head off in his own musical direction.

With Thompson, Nicol, and Hutchings from Fairport Convention, plus drummer Gerry Conway (of Fotheringay, and later to join Fairport) and pedal steel player Gordon Huntley, he recorded his first solo album, Matthews' Southern Comfort, whose sound was rooted in American country music and rockabilly; this was his first significant experience as a songwriter, although the band also covered the likes of Neil Young and Ian and Sylvia. He then formed a working band using the name of his first album and recorded "Second Spring" and "Later That Same Year". The band went through several different lineups and toured extensively for the next two years, to general critical acclaim. They had one commercial success: a cover version of "Woodstock" (written by Joni Mitchell) was a number one hit single in the UK and saw heavy airplay in Canada, as well as reaching #23 in the US.

After recording two acclaimed solo albums on Vertigo Records, under the sponsorship of former Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith and surrounded by a who's who of likeminded British semi-folkies (notably another ex-Fairporter, Richard Thompson), he formed Plainsong, who signed to Elektra Records and in 1972 produced In Search of Amelia Earhart, which solidified Matthews' songwriting reputation with the critics, if not with the general public.

After Plainsong collapsed due to a bandmate's alcohol problem, and with his career now based in Los Angeles, he released several more albums with ad hoc bands, including one produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith (Valley Hi), but none met with commercial success. He bounced from Elektra to CBS Records, to the small Rockburgh label, where he finally scored a hit single in 1978 with a cover of Terence Boylan's "Shake It", and a moderately successful follow-up covering Robert Palmer's "Gimme an Inch".

He moved from Los Angeles to then-inexpensive Seattle, where he teamed up with David Surkamp, formerly of the St. Louis band Pavlov's Dog, to form the power-pop band Hi-Fi, whose repertoire included Matthews originals, but also covers of Neil Young's "Mr. Soul" and Prince's "When U Were Mine". Neither this nor a return to solo recording in England turned his luck. He worked for a while in an A&R capacity at Island Records and then new-agey Windham Hill Records.

Since 1974, Fairport Convention had been staging the annual Cropredy Festival; since 1979, this annual reunion had been pretty much their only activity as a band, but in the mid-1980s several of them were interested in reviving the band and had done some recording. Matthews was invited to join them to perform, both with them and in other configurations, at the 1986 Cropredy Festival. This led to Walking a Changing Line (1988) on Windham Hill, an unlikely album-length tribute to Jules Shear of Jules and the Polar Bears. It led, however, to hooking up with producer Mark Hallman - a longtime fan - 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 front man for a one-shot band. He also appeared with Andy Roberts at the 1992 Cambridge Folk Festival, which led to the first of what were to be several reformed 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 U.S., before moving to Amsterdam in 2000, where he continues to be involved in various indie projects and collaborations, including the Sandy Denny tribute band No Grey Faith and yet another revival of Plainsong.

These Days
Ian Matthews Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I've been out walking
I don't do too much talking these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had
A chance to

I've stopped my rambling
I don't do too much gambling these days
These days
These days I seem to think about
How all these changes came about my ways
And I wonder if I'd see another
Highway

I had a lover
I don't think I'd risk another these days
These days
And if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
It's just that I've been losing
So long

La, la, la, la, la
La, la

I've stopped my dreaming
I won't do too much scheming these days
These days
These days I sit on cornerstones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten

Please don't confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

Overall Meaning

The first verse of Ian Matthews's song These Days sets an introspective tone as the singer reveals that he has been going for walks but not talking much these days. He seems to be preoccupied with his thoughts, particularly about things he forgot to do or chances he had but missed. There's a sense of regret and contemplation in his words as he reflects on his past actions or inactions. The second verse continues in the same vein as the singer talks about how he's stopped rambling and gambling, and instead, he's pondering about the changes in his life and wondering whether he'd have another chance to hit the road. In the third verse, the singer reveals that he had a lover but doesn't want to risk another relationship now. He also suggests that his fear of living the life he has made in his song stems from his long-term losing streak. The final line, "Please don't confront me with my failures; I had not forgotten them," sounds like a plea not to be reminded of his mistakes because he's already acutely aware of them.

Overall, the song seems to be about a person who is looking back on his life and realizing all the things he didn't do or could have done better. He may feel stuck or afraid to take risks now because of his past failures. The repetition of "these days" in each verse emphasizes how time has passed, and the singer has changed along with it. The song has a melancholic and nostalgic quality to it, with a touch of resignation and acceptance of one's limitations.

Line by Line Meaning

I've been out walking
I have been walking outside

I don't do too much talking these days
I do not speak too often nowadays

These days
Recently

These days I seem to think a lot
Lately, I have been pondering frequently

About the things that I forgot to do
About the things that I failed to accomplish

And all the times I had
And all the opportunities I had

A chance to
A chance to do something

I've stopped my rambling
I have stopped wandering aimlessly

I don't do too much gambling these days
I do not gamble much nowadays

These days
Recently

These days I seem to think about
Lately, I have been reflecting about