Music CD - Kathy Mattea: Coal

	Music CD: Coal Artist: Kathy Mattea List Price: $16.98 Our Price: $11.98 Your Save: $ 5.00 ( 29% ) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Manufacturer: R.E.D. Distribution
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Tracks: 1. the L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore 2. Blue Diamond Mines 3. Red-Winged Black Bird 4. Lawrence Jones 5. Green Rolling Hills 6. Coal Tattoo 7. Sally in the Garden 8. You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive 9. Dark as a Dungeon 10. Coming Of the Roads 11. Black Lung
Binding: Audio CD EAN: 0689076532600 Label: R.E.D. Distribution Manufacturer: R.E.D. Distribution Number Of Discs: 1 Publisher: R.E.D. Distribution Release Date: 2008-04-01 Studio: R.E.D. Distribution
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Coal, Kathy Mattea Comment: I saw Kathy do her Christmas show in Charlotte NC on December 2, 2007. I went to her web site and saw that Kathy had a new CD due out in Spring of 2008. I ordered the new CD as soon as it came out. If you like Blue Grass with wonderful Vocal tracks by Kathy, you will love this CD. It is a must have for any Mattea fan or anyone that loves old Bluegrass. The music is great, well done. C. King Customer Rating: Summary: Beautiful Renditions of some classic material Comment: Kathy Mattea definitely knows her way around music. And, like Patty Loveless with "Mountain Soul", I always love when a performer goes back to their roots. I mean literal roots, where they grew up and the music that permeated their childhood. You know you're going to get genuine, "really been there because I lived it" music. While Loveless has the plaintive thing down better, Kathy still works the material very well. I can't say that every single song is a gem, but from only one listen, I know this has no lumps of coal (sorry); all the songs are well done and are tributes to the writers, other performers and especially to the people about whom these were written. You can hear when there is love involved in a music project because the performances are more vital and alive; the artist and their accompanying musicians are vested in the performances because they know this music as though it is part of the very fabric of their being -- because it is. That's when you get an album like this. So, yes, this is definitely a keeper and one of Kathy's best efforts. Customer Rating: Summary: Kathy Mattea's Masterpiece Comment: In brief - COAL is a fantastic record and the best ever from Kathy Mattea. Combining her talents with producer/super picker Marty Stuart and others, has created one of the best CD's of the year. As a fan, I have been on the musical journey with Ms Mattea since her first records. She always creates something memorable, and worth re-listening to. COAL is wonderful from the first few lonesome notes of Stuart Duncan's fiddle to the final a cappela rendition of the song "Black Lung". I can think of no higher compliment to Kathy, Marty and the other musicians that is impossible to just "play a song" from this CD and leave it. You wind up spellbound by it and want to hear the whole thing every time you play it. At least, I do! Second intended compliment: If Kathy sings nothing but songs from COAL in her current shows, and little of her earlier stuff, I won't care!! I love the record that much. Please note that this is a COMPLETELY independent release on Kathy's own label, Captain Potato. I doubt you'll hear a note of it on country radio. That's a damned shame, because fans of Kathy's music, acoustic country and bluegrass will love this CD. Dean Eaton, Cambridge MA Customer Rating: Summary: Among her best... Comment: Kathy Mattea's "Coal" is an album of coal mining songs. Having come from West Virgina Mattea knows a thing or two about the life of a coal miner. The songs on here are all pretty bleak and as dark as the coal of which they were written about. The album is not depressing however. Many of these songs of been recorded by many others, but Mattea makes them her own with her beautiful vocals. There isn't a weak track on here, the entire album from start to finish is an incredible piece of work. However the most incredible track on here is the final track, "Black Lung" sung a capella Mattea is breathtaking. "Coal" is the first album released on Mattea's own "Captain Potato Records" (say "Kathy Mattea" real fast and you'll understand where she got the name of her label from) and is produced beautifully by Marty Stuart. As with other artists who have been dropped from a major label and gone out and released their music thru their own labels, Mattea is free to do the music she likes and it shows on every track. Although "Coal" could very well be the best album she's every made, it does rank up there with her "Time Passes By", "Lonesome Standard Time" and "Love Travels" albums as well as her Christmas album, "Good News". If you're a fan of Kathy Mattea you will love this album. Customer Rating: Summary: Beautiful! Comment: I've been a fan of Kathy Mattea since 1990 when I first heard "Eighteen Wheels...", and have bought every cd and seen her in every Chicago area concert since then (and some in Wisconsin and Michigan, too) - and with each new cd and concert tour I find myself gasping and wondering just how she manages to keep reinventing herself while remaining true to her "sound". This cd is absolutely beautiful - with excellent traditional arrangements - and the songs are rich and full of sound - yet they're sparse at the same time... The production is fantastic! I'm looking forward to seeing this in concert in a few weeks - and to seeing Kathy perform some of her older songs with the instrumentation like on this cd! I loved the way she performed her older songs on the "Right Out Of Nowhere" tour, and I can only imagine how interesting the arrangements of her older songs will be now! This is "front porch" kind of music - no drums - very bluegrass in style. Sit back, relax, and enjoy some good-old musical storytelling from times gone by... Absolutely wondeful! More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: Grammy winner and environmental activist Kathy MAttea, known for such classic hits as "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses," has dreamed quietly about one day recording an album like COAL. Raised near Charleston, West Virginia, her childhood was steeped in the Appalachian culture and her mining heritage is thick: bother her parents grew up in coal camps, her grandfathers were miners, and her mother worked for the local UMWA. But the songs on COAL are more than just mining songs. Mattea says she wanted to pay tribute to "my place and my people." The idea for COAL began to gel during the Sago Mine Disaster, which killed twelve WV miners in 2006. "I knew the time was right," says Mattea. COAL forced her to dig really deep to find the power to let these songs come forth. Co-producer Marty Stuart understood her core relationship to these songs, that they were "in her blood." As Mattea says, "I think there's a mystery there. Somewhere in my DNA, there's my great grandmother singing, my grandma, and my people singing through me, with me." Singer, songs, producer, and pickers have come together flawlessly to form COAL, a career record for Mattea and a great gift for music lovers.