Profile
Kathy Mattea
Singer + Performer + Musician
Female
Born
Jun 21, 1959
Age
54
Hometown
South Charleston,...
Genres
Country music
Instruments
Guitar + Vocals
Performed With
Tim O'Brien
Record Label
Mercury Records
Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more… Read More
Photos
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Romance
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News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Kathy Mattea.
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Kathy Mattea On Mountain StageNPR - Apr 15, 2013
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Nyc Arts: Nyc Arts Top Five | Black History And Making RootsHuffington Post - Jan 30, 2013
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Kathy Mattea Explores Appalachian Music In New AlbumBlue Ridge Now - Sep 14, 2012
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Kathy Mattea On Mountain StageNPR - Jul 17, 2012
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Kathy Mattea.
CHILDHOOD
1959
Birth
Born on June 21, 1959.
TEENAGE
1976
17 Years Old
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.
TWENTIES
1983
24 Years Old
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 Frank Jones (then head of Mercury Records), who signed her to her first record deal in 1983.
1986
27 Years Old
Mattea's third album, 1986's folksy Walk the Way the Wind Blows, proved to be her breakthrough both critically and commercially.
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1988
29 Years Old
Further hit songs include her first No. 1, "Goin' Gone"; the truck-driving song "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" (1988); "Come From the Heart" and "Burnin' Old Memories" (both No. 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 Welch). "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 country singles chart since Dolly Parton's "You're the Only One" in August 1979; both singles were on top of that chart for two weeks.
THIRTIES
1990
31 Years Old
The heartrending "Where've You Been," which Mattea's husband Jon Vezner co-wrote with singer/songwriter Don Henry, reached No. 10 on the country chart and won her a 1990 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal.
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1993
34 Years Old
Mattea won another Grammy in 1993 for her gospel-oriented Christmas album, Good News.
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1994
35 Years Old
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.
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FORTIES
2000
41 Years Old
Mattea subsequently moved to MCA Nashville and, in 2000, released the ballad-heavy The Innocent Years, a heartfelt tribute to her ailing father.
2002
43 Years Old
Wanting to explore her taste for Celtic folk, Mattea hopped labels to Narada, for whom she debuted in 2002 with the eclectic Roses.
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2008
49 Years Old
Her 2008 release, Coal, combined her social activism with songs about coal-mining.
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FIFTIES
2011
52 Years Old
Kathy Mattea was honored as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame 2011 class of inductees.
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Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Mattea.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.