Kathy Mattea and Nanci Griffith gained popularity in the 1980s. Now, 30 years later, they have both released notable albums that remind us just how exceptional they are.
Mattea rode high on the charts with a string of country hits, including “Eighteen Wheels and A Dozen Roses,” “Untold Stories,” and “Burnin’ Old Memories.” Her honey alto was warm and comforting on country radio.
She didn’t rely on gimmicks or theatrics. She didn’t have an instantly recognizable first name like Reba or Wynonna.
Instead, Mattea found good songs and sang them better than anyone else. She brought integrity to her music, striving to find the best way to showcase a song and not herself. She earned a Grammy for best female country vocal for “Where’ve You Been,” a song written by her husband, Jon Vezner, about a longtime couple facing the hardships of aging.
She soon moved to more eclectic material at the expense of radio hits. In 2008, the West Virginia native released her stunning Coal album, a collection of 11 classic mining songs, and became an activist, raising awareness about environmental issues caused by the industry. The songs were difficult numbers to perform and hard subjects to tackle, but Mattea more than rose to the occasion. Her version of “Red-Winged Blackbird” is haunting. Coal was nominated for a Grammy for best traditional folk album. Mattea lost to Pete Seeger.
She returns this year with Calling Me Home on the Sugar Hill label. It picks up where Coal left off, with Mattea delving deeper into a collection of coal and mountain songs. Always a great archeologist of material, she has dug deep to uncover and bring these songs to the surface to make an achingly beautiful album.
“Sad scenes of destruction on every hand,” she sings on Jean Ritchie’s “Black Waters.” “Black waters, black waters, run down through my land.”
While that number describes the scars left by mining, Mattea follows that up with Hazel Dickens’ “West Virginia, My Home,” a song that captures the state’s beauty and hold on its people. Mattea hits all the emotional notes.
It is a richly performed collection,with assistance from Patty Loveless, Emmylou Harris, Mollie O’Brien, and Alison Krauss.
One of Mattea’s biggest songs was “Love At The Five And Dime,” which was penned by Griffith. It appeared on her 1986 Walk The Way The Wind Blows album. In 1992, the songwriter’s “Listen To The Radio” appeared on Mattea’s Lonesome Standard Time album.
Griffith has also released a compelling new album, Intersection, this year.
While Mattea has been a first-rate interpreter, Griffith has served as her own songwriter. Her music is more “folkabilly” than country radio.
On her early albums, Griffith was a Texas spitfire--smart, sassy, and spirited. Her early songs were fictional tales filled with memorable characters and literary lines. Her fourth album, 1986‘s Last Of The True Believers, towers as a classic.
In the best tradition of folk music, Griffith has not been afraid to take a stand in her songs. One of her most well-known compositions is “It’s A Hard Life Wherever You Go.” In that song she sings. “The fat man in front of me Is calling black people trash to his children/ He's the only trash here I see/ And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood.”
On her later albums, she traded some of her youthful spunkiness for mature introspection. And, Griffith grew into the role of torchbearer for folk music.
The recent economic recession and political dysfunction have fueled Griffith’s passions. Her new song “Hell No (I’m Not Alright),” which skips along like a Buddy Holly classic, should be the theme for the recent Occupy Now movement. Nanci Griffith, protest singer.
She writes about other struggles as well. “Bad Seed” is about her turbulent relationship with her father. Griffith is in fine form. Here, she delivers the choice line, “I’m him without the moustache. I’ll have that too if I live that long.”
Mattea and Griffith have released two fine albums this year. (No word yet on whether they will be released on vinyl.)
Both women show they are as good as ever.
