Review: Iain Matthews – How Much Is Enough
Iain Matthews – How Much Is Enough
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital
Label: Must Have Music – Continental Record Services
Release: 2024
Text: Tom Wouters
https://continentalrecordservices.bandcamp.com/album/how-much-is-enough-volume-one?f
Singer-songwriter Iain Matthews has been a constant factor in the world of folk rock and Americana for about 60 years, initially as co-founder of Fairport Convention and with his own group Matthews Southern Comfort, the last 40 years mainly as a solo artist.
He never broke through to the general public (although he had a hit with Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock in the early 70s), but was widely appreciated by his fellow musicians and played on hundreds of albums as a guest musician.
Last year, the 78-year-old Matthews, with a number of beautiful new songs in his luggage, climbed on the phone and called Dutch producer and multi-instrumentalist BJ Baartmans, with whom he had worked regularly for twenty years. “Would you like to produce what may be my last album?” was the question that was as simple as it was clear.
That is how ‘How Much Is Enough’ came into being, an album with thirteen beautiful Americana and folk rock songs, produced by Matthews and Baartmans and recorded in Baartmans’ studio in Boxmeer (the Netherlands), with which Matthews once again proves to be one of the greatest storytellers in his genre with his iconic voice and beautiful lyrics.
The thirteen Matthews originals were formed in the studio by Matthews and multi-instrumentalist Baartmans (he plays almost all guitars, bass, mandolin, banjo, piano, synthesizer and backing vocals on the album) and with the support of long-time companions Mike Roelofs on keyboards and Sjoerd van Bommel, drums and percussion, into very beautifully orchestrated songs.
‘How Much Is Enough’ opens with the lyrically beautiful Ripples In A Stream, followed by the equally beautiful folk song The Bird And The Fish, and the anti-war song Where Is The Love with beautiful sitar sounds. In She’s A Digital World, a song about his daughter, Matthews sings the ironic lyrics à la David Bowie. In the title song How Much Is Enough, he sings about his life as a musician and the tolls that it took.
Highlights of this great album are a song about the future and a song about the past. The modern folk rock of The New Dark Ages is a masterpiece in itself by Matthews and Baartmans, beautifully sung with wonderful backing vocals and a beautiful menacing instrumentation. Completely opposite, but equally beautiful, is the Americana of The Santa Fe Line with beautiful vocals and Baartmans’ banjo in the leading role.
With ‘How Much Is Enough,’ Iain Matthews has once again added a gem to his already impressive oeuvre that has made him a phenomenon in the folk rock/Americana genre. And let’s hope that this isn’t Matthews’ last album and that he’ll soon call BJ Baartmans and ask: “Would you like to produce what may be my next last album?”
Tracks:
01. Ripples In A Stream
02. The Bird And The Fish
03. Where Is The Love
04. She’s a Digital World
05. Good Intentions
06. How Much Is Enough
07. I Walk
08. The New Dark Ages
09. Rhythm & Blues
10. I’s Complicated
11. The Santa Fe Line
12. Turn And Run
13. To Baby
Website: http://iainmatthews.nl/