Singer Kathy Mattea has never stuck to conventions within any genre: A country-music hitmaker in the late '80s and early '90s, Mattea has also made forays into Scottish folk, gospel and roots music. In 2008, she made perhaps the most personal record of her career, Coal.Mattea, a West Virginia native and the granddaughter of coalminers, drew material for her collection of coal-themed songs from the likes of Darrell Scott ("You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive"), Utah Phillips and Alice Gerrard ("Green Rolling Hills") and two of her fellow West Virginians, Billy Edd Wheeler ("Red-Winged Blackbird") and Hazel Dickens (the a cappella "Black Lung").
Mattea first visited the National Public Radio Mountain Stage in 1986, and has logged 17 appearances. On this appearance (stream the whole concert by clicking HERE), she's joined by longtime guitarist Bill Cooley, Eamon O'Rourke on fiddle and mandolin and David Spicher on bass. Fellow West Virginian Tim O'Brien (heard Friday on NPR Music) sings harmony in "Green Rolling Hills."
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