Kathy Mattea, Still Singing From the Heart
By Charlotte Titus - University of Alaska Anchorage
The audience in the Discovery Theatre on Saturday night was witness to an entertainer who believes in the uplifting and life affirming power of music. By the end of the night, the audience could not only feel Kathy Mattea’s love of life in all it’s beautiful and tragic struggles and triumphs but had become willing participants as well.
Mattea began the night with The L&M Don’t Stop Here Anymore from her latest album, Coal. The upbeat tune, played with enthusiasm by Mattea and her band, captured the tone of the evening and set the stage for the stories Mattea is known for telling. Heartbreak, love, devotion, hard work and perseverance all made their appearance the evening of October 23rd.
Starting the evening off, Mattea told the story of how the Grammy nominated Coal transformed her as a singer and a person. Telling her own personal connection to the stories, (both her grandfathers were coal miners), Mattea described pouring her emotions into the album and the healing power the music had when she was overcome with anger over the Sago Mine disaster in her home state of West Virginia in 2006.
Although some of the songs from Coal tell tragic tales, many of Mattea’s own stories had the audience laughing along with her. She told of finally hearing the real story behind one of her greatest hits, Where’ve You Been. The song, written by her husband about his grandparents, is a tender ballad of the triumph of true love over age and lost memory. The real story is her husband’s grandmother was really angry when, at the end of her life and lying in a hospital bed, she finally recognized her husband and asked, ‘Where’ve you been?’
Along with songs from Coal, Mattea sang her biggest hits during the night’s two sets. She asked the audience for requests and obliged with Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses, 455 Rocket and Love At The Five & Dime. But her desire to please went further than her own hits – not knowing the words didn’t stop her from gamely giving her all to the opening rift of Free Bird after the ubiquitous request and her rejoinder: ‘touché.’ The give and take with the audience peaked when she cajoled everyone to sing like no one’s listening to the chorus of 18 Wheels. She then ended the first set with what felt like the anthem to the evening, Come From The Heart.
The musicians accompanying Mattea were skillful musicians in their own right. Dave Spicher on bass, Bill Cooley on guitar and Eamon O’Rourke on fiddle and mandolin all kept pace with Mattea’s eclectic mixed sets of ‘folk-n-roll,’ as she called it. But the most beautiful instrument of the evening, Mattea’s full alto voice, resonated with clarity, deep soul and range on her a capella version of Black Lung, from the Coal album, a heartbreaking but beautiful telling of the tragic ending to one coal miner’s life.
Her compassion for the plight of miners was evident in her performance of songs from Coal throughout the night, some uplifting and others haunting in their telling of broken bodies, disease and darkness. But there was always a story to lighten the mood or bring home the idea that life is to be lived and celebrated, especially in music. Which, as she pointed out in her own mother’s story of being able to sing songs from memory long after her memory of everyone and everything else was gone, is where music lives – in the heart.
Kathy Mattea
Whistling Swan Productions
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Discovery Theatre
Keep up the writing.
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