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W.Va. Native Kathy Mattea Joins Mountain Stage As Its New Host
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
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!
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
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.
Hear Kathy Mattea’s Cover of Martha Carson’s ‘I Can’t Stand Up Alone’
“Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” singer’s new LP ‘Pretty Bird’ will be released September 7th
By STEPHEN L. BETTS
On September 7th, CMA Award-winning vocalist Kathy Mattea will release Pretty Bird, her first new album in six years. A sublime acoustic collection including a number of smartly chosen and heartfelt covers, the record marks something of a new era in Mattea’s 30-plus-year career. Over the past several years her deep, rich singing voice has experienced significant changes that could have put a permanent end to her performing, but after extensive vocal training she has emerged from what she refers to as her “dark night of the soul” with a duskier instrument. That newly trained but still memorable voice, which gave country fans such hits as “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” and “Love at the Five and Dime,” is at the very heart of one of the year’s most affecting LPs.
“This album has led me, slowly and unexpectedly, into new nooks and crannies of singing,” Mattea tells Rolling Stone Country. “Songs showed up in random ways… and became part of our musical landscape during regular Thursday jam sessions in my living room. It’s a very eclectic collection, and for me, each song has a very specific reason for being here, showing me some new point of view about singing along the way.”
One of country music’s most successful artists of the past several decades, Mattea, a two-time Grammy winner, has always approached her material, even the most mainstream country, with an eclecticism and sense of deeper meaning. Those elements are vibrantly evident on “I Can’t Stand Up Alone,” the first track to premiere from the upcoming collection, which was produced by Mattea’s longtime friend and frequent collaborator Tim O’Brien. Written by country-gospel legend Martha Carson in the Fifties, Mattea’s soulful version is a sparkling mélange of those genres, with touches of blues and Appalachian mountain music. The uplifting tune serves as a fitting tribute to singer-songwriter Jesse Winchester, who died in 2014, and whose version inspired this one.
“I’ve always loved [his] version of this song,” Mattea says. “I saw him at [Nashville’s] old Exit/In when I was about 20 years old, and I remember him singing it that night. When he died, I was watching YouTube videos of him out on the road, and remembered this. We kept trying to find a way to make it work for us in our live show, and Bill Cooley came up with this cool guitar lick as a backdrop. He was thinking of a kind of Little Feat funky soul style, but by the time we finished it in the studio with Tim, it had gone full tilt Jug Band. I love it, and have had so much fun singing it live – especially when I can have a bunch of backup singers!”
Mattea’s always impeccable taste for fellow artists and writers is once again evident on Pretty Bird, with the sorrowful title cut coming from iconic bluegrass singer-songwriter Hazel Dickens. Performed a cappella, the LP’s closing track is a tender nod to the singer’s West Virginia roots. Other notable cuts on the new record include the Wood Brothers’ “Chocolate on My Tongue,” an unadorned but effective version of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” a buoyant, spiritual take on Joan Osborne’s “St. Teresa,” the hopeful “This Love Will Carry,” featuring harmony vocals by the song’s writer, Scottish folk musician Dougie MacLean, and “Holy Now,” written by Peter Mayer.