It’s difficult to think of a more compelling time for Kathy Mattea to continue to tour behind her 2008 album “Coal.”
If you go
Kathy Mattea
Where: The Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Info: $35; ticketmaster.com
The two-time Grammy winner whose family still lives in Charleston, W.Va., wrote the 11 songs on the album as a way to spotlight the people and places involved in coal mining. Since the April 5 mining disaster in Montcoal, W.Va., that killed 29 people, her messages are more poignant than ever. “It’s a larger human story of struggle, oppression and people digging deep to find tenacity and hope,” Mattea said. “Singing these songs, telling these stories is such an intimate experience.”
Growing up in Appalachia, Mattea is intimately familiar with the culture of the region. She played folk and bluegrass through high school and college and was signed to Mercury Records in 1983.
Her early albums won fans and critical acclaim but it was her third album “Walk the Way the Wind Blows” resulted in several hits. Soon her folk-influenced sound was winning her awards including a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal.
Through the years, her sound moved from Celtic folk to Southern Gospel and back but she returned to her bluegrass roots for “Coal.”
“In some ways, it’s a double-edged sword,” Mattea said of the attention paid to coal mining communities. “I have a huge connection with the area, a sense of placement. My family still lives there … not only in close proximity, but also close to where generations before them have lived and worked. There’s a deep sense of identification among those in the region.”
