Music: Scott Matthews

The Boy from the Black Country has a new album

Back in 2006, Scott Matthews was hot news. The gifted guitarist, singer and songwriter from the Black Country had released his debut album, Passing Stranger, that year, before being picked up by Island Records who re-released the album later that year. ‘Elusive’ became his signature tune, becoming Single of the Week on Zane Lowe’s show, and picking up an Ivor Novello award the following year for the same song. 2006 also saw him support Foo Fighters on an acoustic tour.

Coming across as the musical descendant of John Martyn and Nick Drake, Matthews wasn’t able to fully capitalise on his early success; it was more than three years before the follow up album, Elsewhere, and the momentum slightly lost … but he never went away, and late last year he released Home: Part One, another very fine album, elegantly soulful with a folk undertow. Now signed to the American Thirty Tigers label, the album is the first to be recorded in his home studio, which he built himself.
“I’m still in the Wolverhampton area, just…” he says. “Someone has to occupy that space. You’re not missing much. But, you get a sense of characters this way; people are genuinely down to earth, when you speak to a local-local. I never really wanted to move anywhere else … I’ve been blessed to travel around the wold – Australia, LA – this Black Country kid, y’know? But, it’s back to this familiarity, somewhere you can feel the tension in your shoulders go.”
Matthews’ deep love for music and respect for his audiences remains very high: “I’m always conscious of leaving somewhere with a pretty good representation of myself, making sure that people get it. You can so easily go through the motions if you’re not careful. Personally, I believe you can’t dupe the punters, you gotta get the feeling across from the time you put pen to paper and wrap the guitar around the song.

“The comments after shows have been encouraging. What matters to me is that people that come to a show are understanding and we can all find a bit of escapism and forget about the world, or think about the world in another way … through the power of music!” Matthews dryly drones.
For this tour he’ll be part of a quartet that also includes Lamb’s double bassist Jon Thorne, as well as his stalwarts, Danny Keane (cello/piano) and Sam Martin (drums/tabla). And later this year he’ll be working on the follow up, Home: Part Two. “The original vision was a double album, but it’s turned out to be a staggered album. They might package them both together at some point. ‘Two’ will have a bit more texture, take stuff from being on the road over the last couple of years.
“It gets a bit lonely in the studio sometimes. But my missus will just waltz in and say, “that’s good”, or “that’s not so good”. She’s the go-to for that instantaneous opinion. A good laugh!”
Scott Matthews, St. George’s Church, Fri 27 Feb, 7pm, £16.50

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