Ian Matthews

   When I first started knowingly listening to the music of Ian Matthews, I didn't know that I had heard him before. It turns out that he was a member of the English folk group,  Fairport Convention, which I knew of from a friend of years ago named Belinda Langner. I didn't like them as I was not interested in that kind of music at that time, but had a couple of years ago discovered an Ian Matthews album on one of the many music blogs that I used to frequent, and which help me to discover so much music new to me.
   I had become progressively more and more interested in folk types of music during those music blog years, and when I discovered the Ian Matthews album, "Journeys From Gospel Oak", I was immediately moved by it, especially the opening track, "Knowing The Game". This album got me interested in his other music, and although I never found any of his albums to be that wonderful a listen throughout, there are songs on each of them that I find quite moving, and are the reason that I choose to write about him here.
   The songs that I like the most are slow, sad and country-tinged, and like Gene Clark (another artist that I like a lot and who Matthews covers on "Gospel Oak") sound to me like they are written by wounded hearts.. Unlike Clark, however, who's voice carries the pain, it's in the instruments and song structure in Mathews' music, though no less moving for it. Although I believe that it is not terribly difficult to write a song that references sadness in the listener, I think that capturing a deep ache within the writer or receiver probably requires a musician that can honestly access that place.