MUSIC

Pros of Plainsong to play for LR Folk Club

Plainsong is (from left) Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts.
Plainsong is (from left) Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts.

Plain and simple, Plainsong is back in business again.

Iain Matthews, who has crafted music since the late 1960s as a member of Fairport Convention, Matthews Southern Comfort and under his name, has revived Plainsong, his collaboration with Andy Roberts.

Plainsong

7:30 p.m. Friday, Little Rock Folk Club, Hibernia Irish Tavern, 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock

Tickets: $15; $8 for students with ID; free to accompanied children age 12 and under

(501) 663-0634

littlerockfolkclub.…

He was born Iain McDonald in 1946 in Lincolnshire, England. Once he became a musician, he began using his middle name, Matthews, to avoid confusion, as the rock band King Crimson featured an Ian McDonald. An original member of Fairport Convention, he and Richard Thompson and the late Sandy Denny were among the more acclaimed practitioners of British folk-rock.

He has gone on to a heralded career, recording 26 solo albums, three with Fairport, five with Matthews Southern Comfort, six with Plainsong and another 15 in various collaborations with other musicians.

Central Arkansas fans will hear Matthews and Roberts perform the songs from the 2015 Plainsong album Reinventing Richard: The Songs of Richard Farina. (Farina, who was married to the sister of Joan Baez, released two albums in the 1960s and one novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (April 1966). He was killed in a motorcycle accident two days after the book's publication.)

"We went looking for his songs, and dragged them, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century," Matthews says with a laugh. "And so that gave us a good reason for a Plainsong tour, the first time ever that we've come to the [United] States. The band formed in '72, then went on hiatus until '92, and there have been various lineups during those years, but now it's just Andy and me."

And while Matthews and Roberts generally confine themselves to Plainsong's material, they will do older Plainsongs music as well as their take on Farina's songs.

"We will do things like 'In Search of Amelia Earhart,' a song that became the name of our debut album in '72," Matthews says.

Roberts, known for having worked with British musicians Roy Harper, Chris Spedding, Kevin Ayers and Vivian Stanshell, is well-remembered by Pink Floyd fans for having been in what was known as the "Surrogate Band" during Pink Floyd's The Wall tour in 1981. He is heard on the live album Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81.

Matthews and Roberts will sing and play acoustic guitars, and Roberts will also play a bit of mandolin during the concert.

Matthews has vowed that he will release no more solo albums, the most recent one being The Art of Obscurity in 2013. Though he may have labored in obscurity, recording for a multitude of labels, he has perfected the art of being prolifically obscure. He has written with or recorded with a lengthy list of other musicians, including Paul Samwell-Smith (of the Yardbirds), Paul Siebel, Michael Nesmith (of The Monkees), Terence Boylan, David Surkamp, Jules Shear, John Helliwell (of Supertramp), Gene Clark, Elliott Murphy and Clive Gregson.

When asked to name his favorite project of his career, he picked In the Now, a 2012 collaboration with Dutch pianist Egbert Derix.

"I had always wanted to make an album of strong jazz," he says, "and that's one that I feel very strongly about, with my vocals and his piano. Time has been good to me in that I'm still able to do what I love doing. I get to the U.S. a couple of times a year, make records and tour all over Europe. I've never made it to Australia, despite having a No. 1 single, 'Shake It,' there in the '70s. But I have no complaints."

Though Matthews lived for a number of years in Austin, Texas, he now lives in Amsterdam, and he reckons the Plainsong show this weekend will be his first visit to central Arkansas since he lived in Texas.

"I'm not sure when I came there most recently, but I do know that I did my first solo show there in Little Rock for Len (Holton, founder of the Little Rock Folk Club)," Matthews says. "I've always had a good experience in Little Rock, thanks to Len."

He was surprised when told that Holton's first Little Rock booking, in 1989, which led to the formation of the local Folk Club, was Matthews' old band mate, Richard Thompson.

"I see Richard every now and then, and we've talked about doing something together again," Matthews says. "Maybe it will come together in 2017, when the 50th anniversary of the Cropredy Festival will be held, and all of us Fairport alumni are invited."

Weekend on 09/29/2016

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