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Biography
BLP sources|date=May 2008Infobox musical artist|name = Kathy Mattea|image = WIKI K MATTEA 0289B.jpg|background = solo_singer|birth_name = Kathleen Alice Mattea|birth_date = birth date and age|1959|6|21|birth_place = South Charleston, West Virginia|South Charleston , West Virginia , United States |origin = Cross Lanes, West Virginia , USA |instrument = Vocals Guitar |genre = country music|Country |occupation = Singer-songwriter |years_active = 1975–present|label = Mercury Records|Mercury Nashville MCA Records|MCA Narada Productions|Narada |associated_acts = Tim O'Brien (musician)|Tim O'Brien |website = http://www.mattea.com mattea.com Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea (pronounced ma-TAY-a)Joe Edwards, "Kathy Mattea Is Former Tour Guide," The Free Lance-Star , Aug 11, 1984, p. 35. (born June 21, 1958, in South Charleston, West Virginia ) is an American country music and Bluegrass music|bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic music|Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard (magazine)|Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. This total includes the number one hits " Goin' Gone ", " Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses ", " Come From the Heart " and " Burnin' Old Memories ", as well as twelve additional Top Ten singles.
Life & career
Expand section|Critical reception, info on each album, vocal and musical stylings|date=December 2008Mattea was born in South Charleston, West Virginia|South Charleston , West Virginia , because it had the nearest hospital to her parents' home in Cross Lanes, West Virginia|Cross Lanes , where she grew up, graduating from nearby Nitro, West Virginia|Nitro High School. She discovered her love of singing at Girl Scouts of the USA|Girl Scout camp. In 1976, while attending West Virginia University , she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro, and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville . She worked as a tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame , did backup vocal work for Bobby Goldsboro , and sang demos for several Nashville songwriters and publishers including Nashville songwriter/producer Byron Hill who brought her to the attention of FrankJones (then head of Mercury Records ), who signed her to her first record deal in 1983.
Mattea's third album, 1986's folky Walk the Way the Wind Blows , proved to be her breakthrough both critically and commercially. Her cover of Nanci Griffith 's "Love at the Five and Dime" was her first major hit, reaching #3 (and in addition, earned Griffith notice as a songwriter), and the album produced three other top ten songs: "Walk the Way the Wind Blows" (#10), "You're the Power"(#5), and "Train of Memories" (#6). "Love at the Five and Dime" also drew attention because well-known country singer Don Williams sang harmony vocals on the track.
Further hit songs include her first #1, "Goin' Gone"; the truck-driving song "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" (1988); "Come From the Heart" and "Burnin' Old Memories" (both #1 hits in 1989); "She Came From Fort Worth" (1990); "Lonesome Standard Time" (1992); "Walking Away a Winner" (1994); "Nobody's Gonna Rain on Our Parade" (1994); "Maybe She's Human" (1994); and "455 Rocket" (1997, written by Gillian Welchcite web|title=The Ghostly Ones|url= http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/20/040920fa_fact_wilkinson|last=Wilkinson|first=Alec|date=September 20, 2004|work=The New Yorker|pages=78|accessdate=2009-07-21). " Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses " in late May 1988, became the first single by a solo female to spend multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard (magazine)|Billboard country singles chart since Dolly Parton 's " You're the Only One (Dolly Parton song)|You're the Only One " in August 1979; both singles were on top of that chart for two weeks.
The heartrending "Where've You Been," which Mattea's husband Jon Vezner co-wrote with singer/songwriter Don Henry, reached #10 on the country chart and won her a 1990 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal. Mattea is a repeat winner of the County Music Associations Female Vocalist of the Year, which she won on the success of "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" and "Where've You Been."
Mattea won another Grammy Award|Grammy in 1993 for her gospel music|gospel -oriented Christmas album, Good News (Kathy Mattea album)|Good News . Her first single from the album, " Mary, Did You Know? ," went on to be covered by Kenny Rogers with Wynonna Judd , as well as Reba McEntire .
In 1994, Mattea collaborated with Suzy Bogguss , Alison Krauss , and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to contribute " Teach Your Children " to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization . Also on that album, Mattea teamed up with Jackson Browne to contribute "Rock Me on the Water". Also through the '90s, she often collaborated with Scottish folksinger songwriter Dougie MacLean .
Mattea subsequently moved to MCA Records|MCA Nashville http://music.aol.com/album/the-innocent-years/428102 The Innocent Years at AOL.com and, in 2000, released the ballad -heavy The Innocent Years , a heartfelt tribute to her ailing father. Wanting to explore her taste for Celtic folk, Mattea hopped labels to Narada Productions|Narada , for whom she debuted in 2002 with the eclectic Roses .
With her social activism and her taste for songs with introspective song lyrics|lyrics , it has been often said that Mattea owes as much to the traditions of folk music as mainstream country.
Her 2008 release, Coal , combined her social activism with songs about coal-mining. It debuted at #64 on the country albums chart, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Traditional Folk category.
Kathy Mattea was honored as a member of the http://www.wvmusichalloffame.com/ West Virginia Music Hall of Fame 2011 class of inductees. She enjoys strong support from a very active fan club , whose members refer to themselves as Matteaheads, and critical acclaim for her albums as she continues to tour and perform.
Social activism
Mattea has been heavily involved in HIV / AIDS -related charities, beginning in the early 1990s, and is often credited with being among the first to champion this cause among the country music community. She is the recipient of the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award, and the Harvard AIDS Institute Leadership Award for this work.
She performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter on VH1 's very first Save The Music concert, which also starred Bette Midler .
In 1991, Mattea took part in Voices That Care , a multi-artist project that featured other top names in music for a one-off single to raise money for the allied troops in the Gulf War . The project included Garth Brooks , Kenny Rogers , Randy Travis , and introduced Celine Dion to the American audience.
Mattea currently travels the country presenting Al Gore 's An Inconvenient Truth and speaking to crowds about the importance of fighting global warming and the environmental and physical devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining.
Discography
Main|Kathy Mattea discography
Further reading
Millard, Bob. (1998). "Kathy Mattea". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music . Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press . pages 329–330.
References
BLP sources|date=July 2008Reflist
External links
http://www.mattea.com Kathy Mattea's Official Website
IMDb name|id=0559762|name=Kathy Mattea
Kathy Mattea Persondata | NAME =Mattea, Kathy | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =June 21, 1959 | PLACE OF BIRTH = South Charleston, West Virginia|South Charleston , West Virginia , United States | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Mattea, Kathy Category:1959 births Category:American country musicians Category:American country singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Musicians from West Virginia Category:Narada Productions artists Category:Nitro High School alumni Category:People from Nitro, West Virginia Category:People from South Charleston, West Virginia Category:Singers from West Virginia
