The musicians who played on it with Matthews were luminaries of the British folk rock scene and included ex-Fairport colleagues Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, plus Gerry Conway, the drummer from Eclection and Fotheringay.

The touring and recording band also named Matthews Southern Comfort, which released two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year, was formed later, with only pedal steel player Gordon Huntley and Matthews appearing on all three albums.

The Matthews' Southern Comfort album was released on the Uni label (a subsidiary of MCA Records) in January 1970 with a first single "Colorado Springs Eternal".

The original vinyl album was reissued on CD by Line Records in Germany in 1993 and a remastered version was issued by BGO records in 1996, not in its original form but as a 2-on-1 remaster with Second Spring.

The liner notes by John Tobler for the 1996 BGO reissue revealed 'Steve Barlby' to be a pseudonym for Ken Howard and Alan Blaikely, a successful song-writing partnership in the pop music industry and Matthews' managers at the time.