| Matthews' Southern Comfort | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Ian Matthews |
| Cover: | Matthews' Southern Comfort (album).jpeg |
| Released: | January 1970 |
| Recorded: | 1969 |
| Genre: | Folk rock, country rock |
| Length: | 38:19 |
| Label: | Vinyl: Uni (UK/Europe) and Decca (US). CD: Line and BGO |
| Producer: | Steve Barlby and Ian Matthews |
| Next Title: | Second Spring |
| Next Year: | 1970 |
Matthews' Southern Comfort is the 1970 debut solo album by country rock/folk rock musician Ian Matthews, recorded after he left Fairport Convention in 1969. The musicians who played on it with Matthews were luminaries of the British folk rock scene and included ex-Fairport colleagues Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, plus Gerry Conway, the drummer from Eclection and Fotheringay.
The touring and recording band also named Matthews Southern Comfort, which released two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year, was formed later, with only pedal steel player Gordon Huntley and Matthews appearing on all three albums. The Matthews' Southern Comfort album was released on the Uni label (a subsidiary of MCA Records) in January 1970 with a first single "Colorado Springs Eternal". It derived its name from a song, "Southern Comfort", written by Sylvia Fricker of the Canadian folk duo Ian & Sylvia, which appeared as the final track on Second Spring.
The original vinyl album was reissued on CD by Line Records in Germany in 1993 and a remastered version was issued by BGO records in 1996, not in its original form but as a 2-on-1 remaster with Second Spring.
The liner notes by John Tobler for the 1996 BGO reissue revealed 'Steve Barlby' to be a pseudonym for Ken Howard and Alan Blaikely, a successful song-writing partnership in the pop music industry and Matthews' managers at the time.