Iain Matthews

Iain Matthews has been such a prolific creator for so long that he’s unsure if How Much Is Enough? is his 53rd or 54th solo album. What’s clear is that after a 60-year career including fronting seminal folk rock band Fairport Convention and hits on both sides of the Atlantic, he’s a man with little to prove but much still to say (even if he does threaten that each new record will be his last!). “I just felt that I needed to make one more solo album as a farewell gift,” he offered from his longtime home in the Netherlands. “But how does a songwriter retire? I honestly don’t know how to stop being a songwriter and don’t know if I ever will.” How Much Is Enough finds Matthews marrying his signature, eloquent folk rock to the sepia-tinted songcraft of Neil Finn, the wide-eyed, wistful wonder of a young David Bowie, and more recent influences including Elliot Smith and Hiss Golden Messenger. Fusing acoustic and electric instrumentation, it’s a record made by a man who didn’t need to make a record, and that purity and authenticity permeates its cultured songcraft and heartfelt lyricism.