A hit-making country music star throughout the ’90s and winner of multiple CMA, ACM and Grammy Awards, Kathy Mattea remains one of Music Row’s most revered singers, as well being the new host of NPR’s beloved Mountain Stage program. Beloved for classics like “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” and “Love at the Five and Dime,” Mattea is known for diverting from Nashville’s mainstream, incorporating folk, Celtic and Appalachian music into the genre.
Twice named Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association, Kathy Mattea established herself in the late 1980s and 1990s as an artist at ease with both country tradition and free-ranging innovation, and with her keen sense of songs and songwriting, as a masterful “songcatcher”. In 1990, the West Virginia native won the first of her two Grammy Awards, earning the Best Female Country Vocal Performance award for her moving “Where’ve You Been,” co-written by husband Jon Vezner.
Her newest release, Pretty Bird, is a collection of songs produced by Tim O’Brien received rave reviews, while her Grammy-nominated album COAL was her first step to rediscovering this vast and rich genre of music, taking her back to the lore of family stories. Mattea remains a rare breed of artist, equally at home spinning out honky-tonk-inflected country pop and rootsy, message-driven folk songs.
