Description
The daughter and granddaughter of coal miners raised in West Virginia, Kathy Mattea has had a lifelong and complex relationship with the element. In the aftermath of the Sago minedisaster in 2006, when 12 miners perished, Mattea was inspired to create the song cycle COAL. A social and environmental activist as well as a musician, Mattea draws on all strands of her beliefs and biography for these 11 songs. They avoid finger-pointing and easy moralizing, accepting that there are no easy answers for the problems of her hometown area orthe country as a whole. However, the deep emotion and plainspoken truth of songs like "Black Lung", "You'll Never LeaveHarlan Alive", and "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore" is obvious even to those who had never given a moment's thought tothe subject. Mattea and co-producer Marty Stuart give the album a suitably stripped-down, folky sound.