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Kathy Mattea Flies Like a 'Pretty Bird'

"Tell Me What You Ache For" Kathy Mattea sings, but the songs on Pretty Bird suggest the pain is still too strong for her to do so.

                                      
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PopMatters is moving to WordPress. We will publish a few essays daily while we develop the new site. We hope the beta will be up sometime late next week.

Kathy Mattea Flies Like a 'Pretty Bird'

"Tell Me What You Ache For" Kathy Mattea sings, but the songs on Pretty Bird suggest the pain is still too strong for her to do so.

Kathy Mattea: Calling Me Home

Ten Notable Holiday Songs of the Past 30 Years

Working in the Coal Mine and Singing About It, Too

In Praise of Older Women: The Best Records of 2008 by Women 45 Years Old and Over

The old music-industry adage is that if a woman doesn't have a hit by the time she's 22 years old, she should probably look for another career. That's obviously a load of blarney.

Kathy Mattea: Coal

Mattea may claim to have coal mining in her blood and bleed whenever a mountaintop is sheared for ore, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is the music, and the music is terrific.

Kathy Mattea: Right Out of Nowhere

She doesn't want to set the world on fire, because it's already burning. Who could blame her for wanting to extinguish the flames?"

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