Ian Matthews (also billed as Iain Matthews) is a vital figure in the history of British folk, known for co-founding the pioneering U.K. folk-rock band Fairport Convention before he went on to found his own group, Matthews’ Southern Comfort, and later moving on to a solo career. Matthews possesses a warm and expressive tenor voice and a talent for songwriting. While he drew from British folk traditions in his work, his greatest inspiration came from American country, folk, and roots music, and he blended their timeless themes with a hippie-fied pastoral feel that was warm and sweet or sorrowful, depending on the song. Though he would dabble in soft rock, power pop, and synth pop in the late ’70s and early ’80s, he always returned to the sun-dappled sound of the country-folk hybrid that was his trademark.