Julie Matthews

Julie Matthews (born 1963) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer.

She has been a member of British folk duos and groups and is acknowledged internationally as a major songwriter, with her work being covered by a wide range of artists and groups.

Her music is often classified as English folk, but contains strong American influences.

Julie Matthews was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England.

The daughter of a steel worker, she began playing guitar at the age of nine before teaching herself piano.

While still at school she began songwriting and recording and was soon exploring what she would identify as the three primary jobs of her songwriting: ‘confession, observation and social comment’.

She left school at 18 and began writing songs for a small London publishing company.

After only a few months the company went bankrupt, so she worked for several years as a nightclub and hotel pianist throughout Europe, while still playing her own music at festivals.

Matthews met Pat Shaw at a session at a local radio station and they formed a musical partnership, singing and playing together.

However, while singing at the Feet First Festival in Derbyshire in 1990 Matthews was seen by Ashley Hutchings, who invited her to join the Albion Band.

With a lack of progress of their own projects Shaw began a career in teaching and Julie joined the Albion Band and toured with them for three years.

Matthews and Shaw released their first album, As Long As I Am Able, in 1992.

Matthews left the Albion Band in 1993 and was replaced by songwriter, guitarist and singer Chris While.

Matthews and Shaw joined fellow south Yorkshire musicians Kathleen and Rosalie Deighton, Kate Rusby, and Kathryn Roberts for the album Intuition (1993).

The same year they released their debut album Lies and Alibis.

All the compositions were by Matthews, including "Thorn Upon a Rose", which was subsequently covered as a single by Mary Black and which charted in Ireland and Japan, helping to establish Matthews's reputation as a songwriter.

The album received critical acclaim, being nominated in the 'rising star' category of the Great British Country Music Awards; this led to the duo opening for Mary Chapin Carpenter at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1994.

However, soon after Shaw returned to her career in teaching and Matthews rejoined the Albion Band.

Matthews and Chris While now became the mainstay of writing within the band.

No studio album was created with this line-up, but recordings from this period surfaced as Captured (1995).

The 1995 release Albion Heart included the While/Matthews collaborations of "Man in the Bottle" (with Ashley Hutchings) and the title track.

In addition Matthews contributed three tracks, including the up tempo "Devil in Me" and the ballad "Love is an Abandoned Car".

In 1995 While and Matthews toured Canada as 'The Women of Albion'.

The intention was a one-off project, but positive audience reception and their growing musical partnership led them towards pursuing joint projects.

They released an EP, Blue Moon on the Rise (1995), with five jointly written tracks, including the since much recorded reworking of a traditional theme as ‘Young Man Cut Down in His Prime’.

One had been used by Fairport Convention as the title track of their 1995 album Jewel in the Crown, (the anti-imperial message of which led to accusations of being unpatriotic) and "Love me or Not" was covered by Frances Black.

Matthews's solo debut, Such Is Life (1996), was notable for the fact that six of the fourteen tracks had already been recorded.

In 1996 Matthews and While joined with Christine Collister, Melanie Harrold and Helen Watson to form Daphne's Flight.

They produced an eponymous record that showcased the vocal talent of the group.

The last Albion album with While and Matthews, Demi Paradise, was released in 1996.

Matthews contributed to five of the twelve tracks, but by this point she and While had decided to focus on their solo and joint work and left the band after the 1997 Cropredy Festival in August.

Matthews co-produced While's solo album, In the Big Room, with writing credits for two songs and instrumental contributions on every track.

This was followed by their first album as a duo, Piecework, in 1998.

This included what are often considered some of their most powerful songs and marked the emergence of their distinctive and highly polished sound.

It included the Matthews-written "Class Reunion" which became a concert favourite; the collaboration "Even the Desert", and "Seven Years of Rust", which was based on her father's experiences.

Their second album, Higher Potential, was released in October 1999.

Tracks written by Matthews included "Angels Walk Among Us" and "Digging Holes".

The following year there was the double live album, Stages.

Their third joint studio album, Quest (2001), was produced by Ghanaian musician Kwame Yeboah of e2K and featured his multi-instrumental skills.

It was hailed as their best album to date, and as cementing their position 'as two of Britain's most important singer/songwriters'.