Ian Matthews

Ian Matthews came up in Lincolnshire, England, and started playing music in the early 1960s. He was listening to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez around then, which shows in the plain-spoken, intimate feel of his singing. In 1967 he joined Fairport Convention, where he helped shape the band's sound before leaving in 1969 to go solo.

His biggest commercial moment came with the 1970 release of "I Don't Wanna Talk About It," a ballad he co-wrote with Todd Rundgren. The song became a hit and gave him a wider audience. Around that time he also recorded tracks like "Perfect Timing" and "A Cross To Bear," which have that same direct, unadorned quality.

After the early 1970s, Matthews kept making records, moving through folk, rock, and country sounds. Albums like If You Saw Thro' My Eyes and Valley Hi came out in the first half of the decade, followed by Tigers Will Survive in 1976. He worked with musicians like Paul Samwell-Smith and Andy Fairweather-Low, but the writing always stayed personal and unvarnished.