Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Kathy Mattea

All of my favorite artists make music that I enjoy.   Kathy Mattea makes music that challenges me to become a better person.

The philosophy major in me finds wisdom in her work. The teacher in me, lessons to impart. The Catholic in me, reminders of a higher power and my obligations to my fellow man.

There's a humanity in Kathy Mattea's work that infuses it with passion and purpose. While she had a strong run at the top of the hit parade, winning major industry awards and selling gold and platinum, her most significant work has been produced since she turned her sights away from the charts and looked inward for inspiration.

What follows are the 25 performances that I value the most. Sometimes, while these records play, it's possible to believe in both a better world and my own power to shape it.

#25
“Ready For the Storm”
Time Passes By, 1991

It may have been Mattea's sixth studio album, but it was on Time Passes By that she truly found her voice. Following a trip to Scotland, she began incorporating more Celtic influences into her work. One of her inspirations was Dougie MacLean, who penned the resilient “Ready For the Storm.” Bad times are on the way, but she's prepared to weather them.

#24
“Ashes in the Wind”
Roses, 2002

Mattea has been married to songwriter Jon Vezner since the late eighties, and many of her strongest songs have come from his pen.  “Ashes in the Wind” tells the story of an unrequited love, ending with the man she always harbored feelings for dying at a young age. She's determined to chart a new course in the aftermath of the loss, comforted by the fact that he is now in heaven.

#23
“Listen to the Radio”
Lonesome Standard Time, 1992

This fun Nanci Griffith tune is one of the most straightforwardly country songs Mattea has recorded. She's leaving her unappreciative beau at home, “sittin' on the sofa, lookin' for his supper”, and her only friend is the radio.Thankfully, she's found Loretta Lynn on the dial, and she asks herself the question that countless others have: “Where would I be in times like these without the songs Loretta wrote?”

#22
“Patiently Waiting”
Love Travels, 1997

There are a few songs on this list that share the theme of finally leaving after putting it off for too long.  Here, Mattea realizes that “Good things only come to those who hit the road when they know what they want.” Gillian Welch penned this one.

#21
“Asking Us to Dance”
Time Passes By, 1991

Hugh Prestwood is the songwriting poet who can claim this among his best work. Romantic without being sappy, “Asking Us to Dance” is a mature look at love, with one lover reminding the other that “All the things on earth worth having are things that we've already got.”

#20
“Guns of Love”
Roses, 2002

Mattea's faith is one that is firmly grounded in non-violence and active peacemaking, and she's pushing here for a change in the weapons of choice. She advocates that we aim a little higher, and warns, “Bet on your anger, if that's what you choose. Nothing's gonna change, everybody's gonna lose.”

#19
“Right Outta Nowhere”
Right Out of Nowhere, 2005

A tale of two souls who both broke free of the chains that held them back. One is a woman who hits the highway “with every ounce of faith” she's got. The other is a man with several doctorates who leaves it all behind to run a junk shop on a tropical island. “Leap,” she sings, “and the net will appear.”

#18
“You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive”
Coal, 2008

It's already become something of a modern standard, having been recorded by both Patty Loveless and Brad Paisley. Mattea's version is heightened by Marty Stuart's expert production, and Mattea's sincere performance clearly communicates the heritage she shares with the characters of the song.

#17
“Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses”
Untasted Honey, 1987

Mattea's biggest hit tells the story of a trucker making the last run of his career, with only fifteen miles left to go.  He's on his way home to “spend the rest of his life with the one that he loves.” Its sing-along chorus makes it a highlight of her live show.

#16
“Unto Us a Child is Born”
Joy For Christmas Day, 2003

Mattea makes better Christmas music than just about anyone.  One of the strengths of her work is that it is never secular in nature, with the focus always being on the nativity. Many consider her definitive take of “Mary, Did You Know” her best work of this nature, but I prefer this upbeat highlight from her second Christmas set, with the emphasis on the newborn baby's title, “Prince of Peace.”

#15
“Give it Away”
Right Out of Nowhere, 2005

One of Mattea's few self-penned numbers was inspired by a backstage meeting with Keb' Mo'. The idea here is that the gifts we are given by God can only be kept by giving them away, which transforms into a metaphor for the love between two partners in the final verse.

#14
“(Love is) My Last Word”
The Innocent Years, 2000

If there's a mood that's virtually absent from Mattea's rich and varied catalog, it's bitterness. Here, she's choosing to lay all of her cards out on the table and bare her soul, but is doing so in a way that is honest and fair: “I'm choosing hope, I'm walking faith. I'm praying to God that it's not too late…For you and I, love is my last word. Not goodbye.”

#13
“Standing Knee Deep in a River (Dying of Thirst)”
Lonesome Standard Time, 1992

The image in the title is derived from this song's main idea, which is that we're surrounded by everything we need, but we're too blind to realize it. It's true about friendship and love

, but also about the homeless, who are surrounded by people who can help them but go unseen by them.

#12
“Walking Away a Winner”
Walking Away a Winner, 1994

Mattea's 1994 set is her most slickly produced, a calcuated attempt to make a commercial record. It succeeded, as the set went gold and the classic title track became her biggest hit in five years.  The self-assured confidence of the track makes it an empowering highlight of her career.

#11
“Come From the Heart”
Willow in the Wind, 1989

Many of Mattea's best songs aren't about love; they're about life, and how to live it. The philosophy espoused by “Come From the Heart” is to not overthink things, and be guided by your heart instead.   “I need to remember,” she sings, “that there's such a thing as trying too hard.”

#10
“Further and Further Away”
Love Travels, 1997

Watching your parents age is chilling, as you still have them with you but you know that time is running short.  Songwriter Cheryl Wheeler penned this song after visiting her father. On the way home, she pulled over and started crying, as she was overwhelmed with the feeling that “the place where I come from” is “slipping further and further away.”   Mattea's performance is understated and heartfelt as she delivers lines like, “You were strong and you knew everything back before I had to know.”

#9
“That's all the Lumber You Sent”
Roses, 2002

This is the opening track on Mattea's Celtic-themed Roses set from 2002, and it's her version of a judgment day.  St. Peter shows the man at the gate to his home.  After walking him past big and beautiful houses, he shows him his “two-room shack,” and the man asks, “How can this be?”  Peter replies, “That's all the lumber you sent”, during your earthly life.   “See that man back there in that great big house?” he adds, “He found out early what it's all about, and built that place with his heart.”

The man vows that given another chance, he'd “love God, my fellow man, take a wife, make a stand.  Be the giving-est guy I can be.”  It's a morality tale with the clear message of what really matters in the end.

#8
“Loving You, Letting You Go”
Right Out of Nowhere, 2005

A fascinating twist on the implications of unconditional love.  “I didn't know they'd be the same one day – loving you, letting you go.”  She still loves the man in this song, but knows he needs his freedom, and loves him enough to let him go. She tells him as they part,  “I can't have you thinking of me as just the one who keeps you where you don't want to be.”

#7
“Love at the Five & Dime”
Walk the Way the Wind Blows, 1986

Mattea's breakthrough hit is a beautiful love story between a Woolworth's salesclerk and a steel guitar player.  They waltz the aisles of the five and dime after the store has closed, and stay together through turbulent times, which include losing a child and competition for the Rita's hand from within Eddie's band.

#6
“Junkyard”
Roses, 2002

There's a righteous anger that simmers underneath “Junkyard”, Mattea's indictment of the corrosive effect of the media and neighborhood gossip. Even though she poses it as a question, it's really an assertive demand: “Is it okay for me to say my mind is not a junkyard? My heart is not a dump for all the gunk around.  My spirit's not a junkyard. No, it's holy ground.” She may as well be speaking for all of us as she wonders, “How do I keep the temple clean?”

#5
“Time Passes By”
Time Passes By, 1991

Living each day for what it's worth is the message of this classic single, which has Mattea reminding us, “Time passes by. People pass on.  In the drop of a tear, they're gone.”  Her passionate vocal is intertwined with some equally compelling fiddle work, making this one of her most aurally pleasing performances.

#4
“There Were Roses”
Celtic Crossroads (John Whelan), 1997

A heartbreaking tale of two friends who are caught in the middle of the violent conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Isaac Scott, a Protestant, and Sean MacDonald, a Catholic, are the best of friends despite their differences, but both end up killed, with one death as revenge for the other.  Mattea can't find the moral in the story, but wonders “how many wars are fought between good friends.” She adds that “Those who give the orders, they are not the ones who die.  It's Scott, and Macdonald, and the likes of you and I.”

#3
“Black Lung/Coal”
Coal, 2008

The chilling closing song to her stunning Coal is sung a cappella. It tells the tale of a man who is dying of the dreaded coal miner's disease, black lung. He's now been forsaken by everyone from his boss man to God himself, as “all but black lung have turned him away.”  All of the darkness that the earlier tracks have foreshadowed fully develop in this heartstopping performance.

#2
“Where've You Been”
Willow in the Wind, 1989

Three-act songs have always been a staple of country music, dating back at least as far as The Browns classic “The Three Bells.”  Mattea's signature song is one of the best, an achingly beautiful story of a sixty-year marriage that ends in a hospital, with Claire and Edwin “in separate beds on different floors.” I still get chills every time she says “Where've you been” for the last time.

#1
“Love Travels”
Love Travels, 1997

A tale of true love and devotion on an epic scale.   Mattea declares that despite the physical separation between her and the one she loves, “love travels the miles upon the wings of angels.”  The production is stunning, with seemingly disparate gospel and Celtic influences merging flawlessly.

As she declares that “the dream that saves me is that you're happy and you're free,” she promises “I will always be near, and I'll love you from here.”  The message is so pure, and so universal, that the people I love have drawn strength from it to deal with both a child away for college and a husband who has passed on. In a career full of inspirational and affirming performances, this is the best.