Kathy Mattea
b. 21 June 1959, Cross Lane, West Virginia, USA. During her teens, Mattea began playing with her guitar at church functions and, when she attended university, she joined a bluegrass group, Pennsboro. She decided to go with the bandleader to Nashville and, amongst several jobs, she worked as a tour guide at the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Despite the competition, her vocal talents were appreciated and she was soon recording demos, jingles and commercials. In 1982, she became part of Bobby Goldsboro's road show. She signed with Mercury and worked with Don Williams’ producer, Allen Reynolds. Her first single, Street Talk, made the US country charts, and then, after some minor successes, her version of Nanci Griffith's Love At The Five And Dime reached number 3. She topped the US country charts with Goin Gone’, written by the delightfully eccentric Fred Koller, and had further chart-toppers with 18 Wheels And A Dozen Roses, Life As We Knew It, Come From The Heart and Burnin Old Memories’. Mattea is married to Jon Vezner, who won awards for the best country song of the year with Mattea's Where've You Been, written about his grandparents’ love. Her 1991 album, TIME PASSES BY, includes her version of From A Distance which she recorded in Scotland with her friend, folksinger Dougie MacLean. Her song, Leaving West Virginia, is used by the West Virginia Department of Tourism. Mattea overcame persistent throat problems to record LONESOME STANDARD TIME in 1992.