Kathy Mattea is one of the most respected female country stars of her era, a commercially successful hitmaker who was able to bring elements of folk, bluegrass, gospel, and singer/songwriter intimacy to her music. She offers the same commitment to country-pop as she does to mining songs, honky tonk, and Celtic ballads as displayed buy her stellar Willow in the Wind from 1989. As her repertoire expanded in the '90s, so did her grasp on the country charts. Single after single and album after album landed inside the Top 20. Her 1993 album "Walking Away a Winner" became her most successful of the decade.
Mattea was born in Cross Lanes, West Virginia, in 1959 and received classical voice training starting in junior high; she also took up the guitar when she discovered folk music. In 1976, while in college, she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville. She worked odd jobs and perfected her songwriting, and in 1983 she landed a deal with Mercury on the strength of her demo tape. Her self-titled debut was released in 1984, and the follow-up, "From My Heart," appeared the following year; none of the singles from either record managed to breach the Top 20. While her 21st-century albums didn't reach the same commercial peaks, they were critically acclaimed and sold better in the United Kingdom than they did back home, including 2012's "Calling Me Home." After a six-year hiatus, she re-emerged in 2018 with "Pretty Bird."
