Kathy Mattea was born in Cross Lane, W.V.,
on June 21, 1959. She received classical voice training
starting in junior high
but also took up guitar when she discovered folk music.
In 1976, while in college at West Virginia University,
she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro
and two years later dropped out of school
to move to Nashville with her boyfriend.
She worked odd jobs
and waited tables while honing her songwriting,
and in 1983, she landed a deal with Mercury
on the strength of her demo tape.
Her self-titled debut was released in 1984,
and the follow-up From My Heart appeared the following year.
None of the singles from either record managed
to breach the Top 20. However, her third effort,
1986's folky Walk the Way the Wind Blows,
proved to be her critical and commercial breakthrough.
Her cover of Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime"
was her first Top 5 hit,
and the record produced three other Top 10 hits.
Her 1987 album Untasted Honey offered two No.
1 country hits, "Goin' Gone" and her signature hit,
"Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses."
The latter won the 1988 CMA for single of the year.
Mattea's 1989 album Willow in the Wind brought two more No. 1 hits,
"Come From the Heart" and "Burnin'
Old Memories," as well as "She Came From Fort Worth.
She won a Grammy for another of the album's tracks,
"Where've You Been," and also
captured the CMA's female vocalist
trophies in 1989 and 1990.
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