Best of Nashville
Music
Best Folk Album by a Country Artist
Coal Kathy Mattea
Mattea always drew on folk music as an influence—something country stars could get away with in the '80s. Since going indie six years ago, she has steadily moved deeper into acoustic music, and with Coal, she makes a quantum shift into hardcore traditional sounds and blue-collar social commentary. Drawing on her roots in West Virginia, where emphysema and union meetings are as much a part of communities as high school sports and discount cigarette shops, Mattea strings together a cover album of songs about mining life and its repercussions. Her naturally warm alto anchors these songs—which range from angry to mournful—in a compassion that makes their edge cut even deeper. —MICHAEL McCALL
