Keep On Sailing (The Elektra Years 1972-1974)

5CD box set retrospective from singer/songwriter Iain Matthews, completing the series of releases covering his 1970s back catalogue.

Featuring expanded 2026 versions of his two albums made for Elektra Records, 1973’s Valley Hi and 1974’s Some Days You Eat The Bear…And Some Days The Bear Eats You including rare and unreleased alternative versions, plus radio sessions and live recordings from the era.

Still making albums and playing live to this day, Iain Matthews’ career spans some 60 years and can rightly be described as legendary. An original member of the folk rock band Fairport Convention from 1967 to 1969, he left to form his own band Matthews Southern Comfort, topping the UK charts in 1970 with a cover of Joni Mitchell's ‘Woodstock’. As well as recording solo albums for the Vertigo, Elektra, Columbia and Rockburgh labels in the 1970s, he was also a founder member of Plainsong* alongside guitarist and singer Andy Roberts.

This early 70s focussed set includes previously unreleased alternate takes of ‘Seven Bridges Road’ and ‘Old Man At The Mill’, plus a rare 1974 concert appearance with his band Another Fine Mess during his US East Coast tour that summer, recorded at Ultrasonic Studios in New York and broadcast at the time by the Long Island FM radio station, WLIR.

Also included are two newly-compiled albums of mostly unreleased live performances from Iain’s archives: 'Elektra Years Live 1973-2023' and 'With A Little Help From My Friends', along with four songs that were never released on any of his studio albums: 'Streets Of Baltimore', ‘Ann Eliza Jane', ‘Feel A Whole Lot Better’ and ‘Train Leaves Here This Morning’.