Grammy/CMA-Winning Artist Reclaims Her Voice With
First New Album in Six Years On Captain Potato/Thirty Tigers
Watch the lyric video for “I Can’t Stand Up Alone” via YouTube
Pre-order PRETTY BIRD here
On Friday (7/13), Kathy Mattea shared her version of “ I Can’t Stand Up Alone” the first single from her upcoming release PRETTY BIRD, out September 7. About the track, Rolling Stone Country claims, “Written by country-gospel legend Martha Carson in the ‘50s, Mattea’s soulful version is a sparkling mélange of those genres, with touches of blues and Appalachian mountain music.”
PRETTY BIRD is Mattea’s first studio album in six years, following 2012’s FOLLOW ME HOME. Hailed by The Washington Post as “one of Nashville’s finest song interpreters,” Kathy Mattea has enjoyed the kind of success many artists only dream of: two GRAMMY wins, four CMA Awards, four #1 country singles, and five gold albums (plus a platinum collection of her greatest hits). The dream almost ended, though, when Mattea entered her 50s and began to find her voice changing. What followed was a three-year journey through life challenges and vocal glitches that she describes as her “dark night of the soul,” a trying time of personal anguish and professional uncertainty that threatened to silence her permanently.
Mattea persevered, and has emerged with the moist poignant album of her career. Recorded over the course of a year with roots music wizard Tim O’Brien at the helm, the album opens with a playful take on Oliver Wood’s sultry “Chocolate On My Tongue” before moving seamlessly into a soulful rendition of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe.” The Mary Gauthier-penned “Mercy Now” finds Mattea offering up a tender prayer for understanding in these troubled times, while Joan Osborne’s “St. Teresa” takes on new life in light of the ravages that addiction has wrought on the singer’s home state. The arrangements on the album are earthy and organic, but its most affecting moments arrive in stripped- down songs like the British traditional “He Moves Through The Fair” and the arresting title track, a Hazel Dickens tune that boldly closes the record with Mattea’s rich, a cappella voice.
Hailing from West Virginia, Mattea headed to Nashville in the late ‘70s. Her commercial breakthrough arrived with albums WALK THE WAY THE WIND BLOWSand UNTASTED HONEY. Mattea was named Country Music Association (CMA) Female Vocalist of the Year in 1989 and 1990 and earned a 1983 Grammy Award for her album GOOD NEWS. Her list of hit singles includes “Love at the Five and Dime” (1986), “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” (1989), and “Where’ve You Been” (1990).
Pretty Bird