Mine tragedy sparks bluegrass CD
Mattea at home on 'coal'
By Cathalena E. Burch
Cburch@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.05.2009
Kathy Mattea's music has explored Ireland's and Scotland's rich Celtic traditions and America's signature bluegrass and country.
Now it has taken her home.
On her latest project, the old-timey, mountain-soul-rich "Coal," the West Virginia native discovered a voice that she never knew existed. And that voice has a story to tell.
"I made ('Coal') because I had a lot of grief after the Sago Mine disaster (in West Virginia) of 2006," she said during a phone call from Nashville last week. "I made this record because I thought it would help me get something out of my system about my own grief. I thought I would make this little side project, this little folk record. And it wound up changing my life."
"Coal" is Mattea's latest political crusade, one that shoehorns well with her social activism. She supports U.S. and allied troops, and HIV and AIDS charities. And she's helped bring attention to Al Gore's global-warming agenda.
Coal, she has discovered, is central in the global-warming conversation.
"Over half of the electricity in this country comes from burning coal. . . . The implications affect all of us," said Mattea, who'll bring her "Moving Mountains" tour to the University of Arizona's Centennial Hall Saturday. "It is at the center of every debate going on."
She sees her role as more storyteller than advocate.
"I let the music tell the story. I try to honor the people and the stories and the history of this music," she said.
But the message is very personal — her grandfathers were coal miners, and her brother works on the fringes of the industry, dispatching barges of coal to electric plants throughout her native Appalachians.
"There was this moment when we went home to take photographs for the album cover. And my manager said, 'Well, Kathy, you grew up in the shadow of coal.' I'm like, 'What are you talking about? That sounds like a movie scene.' And he just pointed to this giant coal-fired electrical plant that is just a couple of miles from my parents' house that just loomed over everything," she said in a lyrical West Virginia accent. "It's the biggest coal-fired electrical plant east of the Mississippi; it's five miles from my house."
"Coal" mines some of the richest veins of old-timey mining songs — "Black Lung," "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive," "Dark as a Dungeon" and "Coal Tattoo" are among the 11 tracks. The record is refreshingly simple, without high-glossed production values to rob it of its reality. Much of that is owed to the producer, Marty Stuart, whose history with mountain music dates to when he toured with the legendary Lester Flatt at age 13.
Stuart also reined in Mattea's eclectic urges.
"He knows this music; it's just in his cells. So he was my sort of barometer, my compass," said Mattea, 50, who had wanted to insert Autoharp and Celtic whistle into the album. Stuart told her that it would be a disservice to the music.
"If Marty tells me it sucks, I can trust that it sucks. If Marty tells me it's good, I can trust that it's good," she said.
"I didn't know how my audience would respond. 'OK, I'm making a hillbilly record. Get ready for it,' " she recalled. "And the thing about these songs — and this has been the real growth musically for me — is that the songs are very simple. In this modern age, especially as a musician who's been doing this for a while, it's very hard to trust simplicity."
After spending the past three years with "Coal," from making the album to touring, she will move on early next year to a new record. But she won't stray far.
"I have gone back and explored Celtic music and old English music. I've done country, bluegrass and folk," she explained. "This was the missing link for me. I feel like there's more for me to explore there."
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