01 – A Far Cry
02 – Gone, Gonna Rise Again
03 – The Wood Thrush’s Song
04 – West Virginia Mine Disaster
05 – The Maple’s Lament
06 – Hello, My Name Is Coal
07 – Calling Me Home
08 – Black Waters
09 – West Virginia, My Home
10 – Agate Hill
11 – Now Is the Cool of the Day
12 – Requiem for a Mountain

When Kathy Mattea made a hard roots turn on 2008's Coal, a heartfelt examination in classic mining songs of the hard, often dangerous life of coal miners, it sounded like she'd been singing them all her life. On Calling Me Home, Mattea delivers a second album of material that has its origins in coal country and/or her native rural West Virginia. With co-producer Gary Paczosa, she chose songs that drew their inspiration from coal-mining communities, and the juxtaposition of the natural environment and its devastation at the hands of an industry that is often the only one that provides a livelihood. These songs were penned by classic topical writers and modern performers. The band is top-flight: Stuart Duncan, Byron House, Bryan Sutton, Tim Lauer, Bill Cooley, and Jim Brock. Guest vocalists include Patty Loveless, Tim & Mollie O'Brien, Alison Krauss, and Emmylou Harris, to mention a few. Paczosa is well-known in acoustic music circles, from bluegrass and newgrass to modern folk, for his manner of capturing warm, pristine, immediate sound. The arrangements by Paczosa and Mattea never lose sight of the traditional -- even if the song is present-day -- while honoring the progressive talents of all the players involved. Atop it all, of course, is Mattea's voice: full, rich, soulful, evocative of both history and mystery. Her husky, smooth delivery and unique phrasing get these songs across with conviction. Its in the haunted backwoods gospel of Si Kahn's "Gone, Gonna Rise Again," a song rich in sociological and environmental metaphors. Catch her reading of Laurie Lewis' "The Wood Thrush's Song," with Aoife O'Donovan's harmony vocal, as Mattea digs deep inside the lyric while mandolins, guitars, accordion, and bass give her a podium. She doesn't need to soar above them; she merely has to assert the authority of the lyric to invite the listener in. This is equally true in the reportorial classic "West Virginia Mine Disaster" by Hazel Dickens. Contrast this with the desolate a cappella lament of Alice Gerrard's "Now Is the Cool of the Day," the nostalgia of Dickens' "West Virginia, My Home," or the depth of historical loss in Jean Ritchie's "Black Waters." The "blues" in bluegrass is resonant in Mattea's declamatory reading of Larry Cordle's dark-tinged, historically ambivalent "Hello, My Name Is Coal." Calling Me Home is not only a worthy follow-up to Coal, but it presents even the most historic of these songs as timeless and ever present. It's more confident, powerful, and beautiful. ---Thom Jurek, Rovi

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1 	The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore 	4:14
2 	Blue Diamond Minds 	5:03
3 	Red-Wired Blackbird 	2:56
4 	Lawrence Jones 	3:08
5 	Green Rolling Hills 	3:47
6 	Coal Tattoo 	3:17
7 	Sally In The Garden 	0:48
8 	You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive 	5:06
9 	Dark As A Dungeon 	4:38
10 	Coming Of The Roads 	4:40
11 	Black Lung/Coal 	6:12

Kathy Mattea 	Guitar (Acoustic), Vocals
John Catchings 	Cello
Bill Cooley 	Guitar (Acoustic)
Stuart Duncan 	Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar (Acoustic), Mandocello
Eric Fritsch 	Hammond B3
Byron House 	Bass (Upright), Main Personnel
Randy Leago 	Accordion, Piano
Patty Loveless 	Vocal Harmony, Vocals (Background)
Fred Newell 	Bass (Upright), Pedal Steel
Mollie O'Brien 	Vocal Harmony, Vocals (Background)
Tim O'Brien 	Vocal Harmony, Vocals (Background)
Marty Stuart 	Guitars, Mandocello, Mandolin, Vocal Harmony, Vocals (Background) 

Although she's moved steadily towards a more roots-oriented style over the years, Kathy Mattea will probably always be remembered for her pop-styled country hits from the 1980s and '90s on Mercury and MCA Records. A lot has changed, though, and she's no longer a major-label darling, and her latest album, Coal, on the independent Captain Potato imprint, is exactly the kind of release she wouldn't have been allowed to do earlier in her career when everything hinged on delivering a radio hit or two or three. Coal is a heartfelt examination of the hard, often dangerous life of coal miners, and includes classic mining songs by the likes of Merle Travis, Hazel Dickens, and Jean Ritchie all arranged in a delicate, muted acoustic style by Mattea and her producer this time out, Marty Stuart. Mattea grew up in West Virginia, and while her father escaped the mines, both her grandfathers were miners, so when the 2006 Sago Mine disaster hit, which left 12 good men dead, she made up her mind to record this sparse, striking album. It won't land her on the new country stations, but it's a beautiful testament to a difficult way of life, and working on an independent label, she's been given the freedom to make an album that has more to do with the heart than the ring of distant cash registers. Highlights include versions of two of Jean Ritchie's finest compositions, the precise and brilliant "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore" and the only slightly less striking "Blue Diamond Mines," a muted and effective take on Billy Edd Wheeler's haunting "Red-Winged Blackbird," and a sturdy rendition of Merle Travis' classic "Dark as a Dungeon," but everything here is of a piece, and Mattea's unadorned vocals and Stuart's supporting arrangements never overstate things, allowing these songs to tell their forceful stories of lives spent reaching for personal dignity and redemption in the face of almost impossible odds. It's bleak, sad, and tragic, yes, but Coal, in the end, is surprisingly reaffirming because of it. Coal won't fill the dancefloors but it will fill the heart with hope and remind that even in the darkest times and places, there's a song worth singing, and those songs, the ones that emerge from the bleakest situations, may well be ones we need the most. ---Steve Leggett, AllMusic Review

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