By Wayne Bledsoe of the Knoxville News Sentinel
When Kathy Mattea steps on a stage and performs her hits from the 1980s and '90s, she doesn't feel like her material is dated.
"One thing that I've been very fortunate about is those are really strong songs," says Mattea in a call from her home in Nashville. "They really hold up so they're still a pleasure to sing. So I don't feel at all false when I'm singing them. They feel like your favorite pair of jeans or your old friend that you're bringing out to share with people. I am very aware of what a gift it can be to have songs that live in your own head and songs that live in other people's heads, too. Songs that are a part of their lives. And I think that's something to honor."
Always a champion of great songwriters, Mattea's hits include Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime," Tim O'Brien's "Walk the Way the Wind Blows," "18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses" by Paul Nelson and Gene Nelson and "Where've You Been" By Jon Vezner and Don Henry.
Mattea was part of what Steve Earle has called "the great Nashville credibility scare" — a short period from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s when country music was on the cutting edge and its songwriters were the best in music.
"It feels like a great blessing. I feel like I get to live in the result of that," says Mattea. "I had Allen Reynolds as my mentor and he said, 'Kathy, it's the song. They'll tell you its the bells and whistles or the sound of the track or whatever, but if you find a great song, your work is done for you if you sing it honestly and you frame it well it will be timeless.' So here was a man who rather than trying to ride a wave or make a big career, his focus was on timeless records. To have someone when you're 23, 24 years old pointing your compass that way is a great gift. ... That's what's sustained me all these years. That's why I still want to pack my bags and get on the bus at this point. It's still a pleasure."
Mattea's current tour is a stripped-down affair by design with only Mattea and her longtime guitarist Bill Cooley. Mattea says she and Cooley get together every Thursday to rehearse, but for the past year or so she's been working hard to improve her voice, which, she says, had begun to deteriorate.
"I've talked to more than one person about this and they say, 'Well, you just find your way around it and do the best you can.' And I thought, 'Well, maybe so. Maybe you hit the limitation and do the best you can and the audience gives you a little grace because they've loved you for a long time and you just do your best.'"
However, Mattea recalled a conversation with Tony Bennett when she'd asked him how he could sound so good at 80.
"He said, 'Well, my voice isn't what it once was, but it's a lot better than it was a couple of years ago. I found a teacher and I started working again.' So I thought, 'Well, I'm not going down without a fight!'"
Mattea began working with a teacher at getting her voice back in shape and, in fact, she noticed on those Thursdays with Cooley that she started being able to sing things she hadn't before. She decided that she wanted to share her excitement she was experiencing on those Thursdays with audiences.
"It's been steadily improving, but I kind of made a leap this weekend. I could go do a hundred dates. I don't know what it is, but it kind of feels like brand new. To have that in your late 50s is so exciting. There are days that I feel like I've been hit by a bus and I don't know what I'm doing and I'll never sing again. Now it's starting to open up form the work I'm doing."
Mattea says she's also having to improve as a guitar player as well since she only has one other person on stage. She's also singing more challenging songs, including numbers by Mary Gauthier, Jesse Winchester, Oliver Wood of the Wood Brothers and Annie Ross.
"I feel more challenged and it's very unexpected. ... It's less about a show and more about pulling the audience into the process. It's about reaching for something and sometimes finding something you didn't know was there."
Kathy Mattea
When: 8 p.m. Thursday, May 19
Where: Bijou Theatre
Tickets: $23.50,
www.knoxbijou.com
