Kathy Mattea Mines Coal for New Project

2/15/2008 Stephen L. Betts This year marks the 25th anniversary of Kathy Mattea’s first recording contract. The Cross Lanes, West Virginia, native will mark the occasion with a new album exploring her West Virginia roots. Produced by Marty Stuart, Coal explores the lives of the region's miners. Kathy was inspired to pursue the theme after the 2006 Sago (W. Va.) mine disaster, which hit all too close to home, and reminded her of the Farmington Mine Disaster of 1968, a time when her grandfathers were miners and her mother worked for the union. “When Sago happened, I got catapulted back to that moment in my life and thought, 'I need to do something with this emotion, and maybe this album is the place to channel it,’” says Kathy. “I knew the time was right.” The album is the first to be released on Kathy’s own label, Captain Potato Records – and for the project Kathy says she specifically sought out material that would “speak to the sense of place and sense of attachment people have to each other and to the land.” Kathy’s own concerns for the land were heightened in 2006 when she saw Al Gore give his Nobel Prize-winning power-point presentation on global warming at Vanderbilt University. She became so passionate about the subject that she now travels with the Climate Project, which presents slide shows about the topic. “I want to spread the word of hope to regular people,” she says. “We really can be part of the solution. Even the smallest action empowers us to change our world.” Coal is set for release on April 1.