04 Mar, 2022
Listen to "Turn Off The News (Build A Garden)"
09 Sep, 2021
W.Va. Native Kathy Mattea Joins Mountain Stage As Its New Host
21 Jul, 2020
Many artists came together and created the song, Play It Forward, which is fundraising on behalf of Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee to support their mission of feeding hungry people and working to solve hunger issues in our community. Second Harvest is distributing nearly 40% more pounds of food per week compared to this time last year. Simultaneously, grocery store food donations have declined more than 30%, and food drive donations are at a standstill. This means Second Harvest must purchase an additional 100,000 pounds of food each week to feed our Middle Tennessee neighbors. By supporting this fundraiser, your gift will provide hope to those in need. http://shfbmt.convio.net/goto/playitforward
05 Dec, 2019
Hey there...tonight I'm hosting the PBS Pledge Drive special about Ken Burns' Country Music documentary. I'll be hosting the local showing here in Nashville, too! I'm very happy to be able to help out PBS, as well as NPT (Nashville Public Television), I love what they do! Very important work!
05 Dec, 2019
by Roger Catlin Kathy Mattea utters the first words in Ken Burns' epic Country Music documentary, a chronicle of the genre's evolution throughout the 20th century as told by some of its biggest stars. And eventually, before the 16 1/2 hours are over, it also tells her story. She may not be a coal miner's daughter, but the West Virginia native is a coal miner's granddaughter. A two-time Grammy winner who first hit #1 with "Goin' Gone" in 1987, Mattea began her career steeped in traditional music history from being a tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame. "The day I learned about Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, I went home and I was like a changed person," says the singer, who also cites Brenda Lee and Loretta Lynn as major inspirations. As one of the consultants of Country Music, she attended a screening at sponsoring station WETA in Washington, D.C. We caught up with her backstage to talk about the project, her own path between traditional roots and Nashville commercialism and the song choices she's made over the years. READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
05 Dec, 2019
Hailed by The Washington Post as “one of Nashville's finest song interpreters,” Kathy Mattea has enjoyed the kind of success many artists only dream of: two GRAMMY wins, four CMA Awards, four #1 country singles, and five gold albums (plus a platinum collection of her greatest hits). The dream almost ended, though, when Mattea entered her 50s and began to find her voice changing. What followed was a three year journey through life challenges and vocal glitches that she describes as her “dark night of the soul,” a trying time of personal anguish and professional uncertainty that threatened to silence her permanently. “The hardest thing was facing the question of whether I would still be able to sing well enough to enjoy it. That was the acid test for me, and I had to be willing to walk through a process that bumped me up against the very real possibility that, in the end, the answer might be “No.” Instead, Mattea dug in with a vocal coach, re-committed to her music, and emerged with the most poignant album of her career, “Pretty Bird.” Working with her old friend, music roots wizard Tim O’Brien, producing, “Pretty Bird” is a chronicle of her journey, song by song, back to singing for the sheer joy of it. It’s an emotional, moving collection, one that draws its strength not only from Mattea’s touching performances, but also from her uncanny ability to weave seemingly disparate material into a cohesive whole. From a playful take on Oliver Wood’s “Chocolate On My Tongue” to a tender rendition of Mary Gauthier’s “Mercy Now,” from a British traditional to a Bobbie Gentry classic, these are the songs that helped Mattea reclaim her voice, and she inhabits each as fully as if it were her own. Exquisitely arranged and delivered with the kind of subtlety and nuance that can only come from a lifetime of heartbreak and triumph, ‘Pretty Bird’ is a title Kathy Mattea inhabits quite literally, and it’s a welcome reintroduction to one of country and Americana music’s most enduring and beloved figures.

The Ken Burns Effect: How ‘Country Music’ Doc Surged Sales for Country Legends

Country singers from Waylon Jennings to Kathy Mattea experienced a surge in sales and streams following Ken Burns' 'Country Music.'

Kathy Mattea could hardly contain her amusement. The West Virginia-born country singer hasn’t had a song on the country charts in nearly 30 years, but after the airing of Ken Burns’ eight-part Country Music documentary, she woke up last week to find that both her greatest hits collection and her 1989 song “Where You’ve Been” were included among the 40 top-selling country songs and albums on online retailers like Amazon and iTunes. 


“I’ve been laughing about it all day,” says Mattea, who served as a consultant and talking head in the documentary. “I’d been thinking to myself that this documentary was going to be great for country music, but I never thought about it in a personal way. Now I’m just a giggly little school girl. I’m 60 years old. To wake up with a couple things in the Top 40 is pretty funny.”


Mattea is just one of a number of country artists, living and deceased, whose music has seen a dramatic spikes in sales and streaming in the wake of Burns’ documentary. The day after Country Music‘s finale, 14 out of the 20 top-selling country albums on iTunes were from artists who’d been prominently featured in the series, like Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline, and Willie Nelson. Emmylou Harris alone had six albums featured in the genre’s Top 100 best-selling chart. At one point, 63 of the Top 100 spots on Amazon’s Country chart were occupied by artists profiled in the film...  READ MORE

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