15 Facts About Julie Matthews

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

Julie Matthews has been a member of British folk duos and groups, and her work has been covered by a range of artists and groups.

Julie Matthews's music is often classified as English folk, but it contains strong American influences.

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

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

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

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

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

Julie 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.

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

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

In 2008 While and Julie Matthews released their sixth studio album Together Alone; Propaganda magazine described the duo as 'dealing so very tenderly with simple universal truths, they achieve their impact by an astute economy of expression allied to warmly accessible melodies and arrangements'.

In December 2001, While and Julie Matthews joined with Chris Leslie and David Hughes to form the Christmas project St Agnes Fountain, which combined original music, unique arrangements of classic seasonal songs, with a good deal of humour.

Julie Matthews wrote 11 of the songs, covering four of the programmes for the shows.

Julie Matthews has produced albums for other artists, including Helen Watson's Somersault and Lifesize and Kellie While's Tenacious.