Kathy Mattea CD to have focus on coal
Category: Bluegrass News
By Dan Tackett
February 11, 2008
Remember Kathy Mattea, country music’s sweet, fresh voice during an era just before country was about to turn sour?
Mattea has a new CD in the works, and it’s one that’s sure to attract bluegrass fans. Simply entitled, “COAL,” the CD will be released by Captain Potato Records on April 1.
“This record reached out and took me,” Mattea says on her Web site. ” It called to me to be made.”
From the West Virginia hill country, Mattea — even in her country heyday — was never too far removed from bluegrass. On this project, she nearly steps completely into the bluegrass circle — it’s her first album minus drums.
Being from coal-rich West Virginia, Mattea gives plenty of insight into the recording on her Web site. It’s a project that wasn’t taken lightly. In fact, Mattea said the Sago Mine Disaster and its 12 miner deaths made her realize it was time to tackle the “COAL” project, which, she says, has been on her mind since she was 19, when she first heard “Dark as a Dungeon.” “This record reached out and took me,” Mattea says on her Web site. “It called to me to be made.
Mattea is no stranger to coal and coal country. Both her grandparents were miners and her mom worked for the United Mine Workers Association.
“COAL” includes songs by Jean Ritchie, Billy Edd Wheeler, Hazel Dickens, Utah Phillips, Merle Travis and Darrell Scott. The studio team includes names that are no strangers to the bluegrass crowd, beginning with Mattea’s hand-picked producer, Marty Stuart. He also plays guitar, mandolin and mandola on the tracks and joins Patty Loveless for background vocals on one song.
Bryon House plays bass and Stuart Duncan adds fiddle, mandolin and banjo. Longtime Mattea guitarist Bill Cooley handles six-string chores. Other musicians are John Catchings, Randy Leoago and Fred Newell. Tim O’Brien, who has had a long musical association with Mattea, and his sister Mollie O’Brien contribute vocal work on one cut.
Editors Note: Kathy Mattea’s web site is currently featuring an interview from her recent appearance on NPR’s “Living On Earth” that features some of the music from Mattea’s forth-coming album “COAL” as well as some personal insight into growing up, living in a coal mining community and the environmental effects of the coal industry.
• Kathy Mattea
It’s good to see that Kathy Mattea recognizes a good idea when she sees it. Making this “back to her roots” album with a focus on coal-mining is a stroke of genius — just like it was when PATTY LOVELESS DID IT SEVEN YEARS AGO!
While the track listing isn’t shared here, Mattea’s people mention that Patty Loveless appears on the album and Darrell Scott is among the songwriters. Mattea also mentions that she “has a song” that deals with the fact that many mineral rights in Appalachia were bought in the 1800s. Could it be that the Darrell Scott song is “Never Leave Harlan Alive” — arguably the single most powerful song THAT WAS ALSO ON PATTY LOVELESS’ ALBUM IN 2001?!?!?
Sure, Patty’s wasn’t called “coal” or totally themed around it, but break out your copy and check out the inside cover art. Loveless’ album made an impression on me — and evidently it made an impression on Mattea too.
Kathy — this album had better be INCREDIBLE, otherwise I’ll stick with Patty’s version of the same thing. It WAS incredible.
…except that Mountain Soul had absolutely nothing to do with a coal-mining theme. I’d think the basis for asserting the existence of such a theme would be the songs, not cover art, and there’s only one song on it that qualifies; none of the album’s other songs even come close. I don’t think that Mattea’s version of You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive can touch Loveless’s, but there’s no shame in that, because who can? But your suggestion that because Mattea is covering the same song, she’s copped the idea behind her album from Loveless, is absurd.