Scott Matthews

Born in 1976 in Wolverhampton, England, Scott Matthews crafts a songwriting style that sits between folk rock, indie folk and blues, supported by a hushed voice, precise acoustic guitar playing and spare arrangements in which the harmonica appears regularly. He emerged in the mid-2000s with Passing Stranger, released in 2006 on San Remo and later reissued by Island Records — a debut that established an intimate, melodic world with roots inflections. His profile grew with backing from several BBC programmes, and the song “Elusive” earned him an Ivor Novello Award in 2007 in the category of best song musically and lyrically. During this period Matthews performed widely across the UK and also opened for Foo Fighters on their 2006 acoustic tour. His subsequent albums include Elsewhere (2009), What the Night Delivers (2011) and Home Part 1 (2014) — records that extend a British songwriter’s attention to textures, silences and restraint, between folk ballads, blues accents and subtle rock colouring.