The singer/songwriter has challenged himself creatively during a career that has been characterised by rare quality. As Matthews gears up for the release of his seventh studio album, New Skin, new horizons loom into view as he finds different ways to cast a spell.

The quality of Matthews’ craft is a given. The Ivor Novello-winning artist is part of a lineage that includes such greats as Buckley and Drake, John Martyn and Paul Simon. With guitar in hand and a voice that conveys raw emotion, he has long been established as one of the world’s foremost purveyors of song.

Having broken through with the much-loved Passing Stranger and more recently mastered the delicate art of one-man-and-a-guitar music with sparse musicianship and an otherworldly falsetto, through the records Home Pt I, Home Pt II and The Great Untold, Matthews is travelling along new roads.