A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος (hymnos), which means "a song of praise." Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymnbooks.

Origins[link]

Ancient hymns include the Egyptian Great Hymn to the Aten, composed by Pharaoh Akhenaten; the Vedas, a collection of hymns in the tradition of Hinduism; and the Psalms, a collection of songs from Judaism. The Western tradition of hymnody begins with the Homeric Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns, the oldest of which were written in the 7th century BC, praising deities of the ancient Greek religions. Surviving from the 3rd century BC is a collection of six literary hymns (Ὕμνοι) by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus.

Patristic writers began applying the term ὕμνος, or hymnus in Latin, to Christian songs of praise, and frequently used the word as a synonym for "psalm".^[1]

Christian hymnody[link]

Originally modeled on the Psalms and other poetic passages (commonly referred to as "canticles") in the Scriptures, Christian hymns are generally directed as praise and worship to the monotheistic God. Many refer to Jesus Christ either directly or indirectly.

Since the earliest times, Christians have sung "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs", both in private devotions and in corporate worship (Matthew 26:30; 1 Cor 14:26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13; cf. Revelation 5:8-10; Revelation 14:1-5).

One definition of a hymn is "...a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper's attitude toward God or God's purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely emotional, poetic and literary in style, spiritual in quality, and in its ideas so direct and so immediately apparent as to unify a congregation while singing it".^[2]

Christian hymns are often written with special or seasonal themes and these are used on holy days such as Christmas, Easter and the Feast of All Saints, or during particular seasons such as Advent and Lent. Others are used to instill reverence to the Holy Bible or to celebrate Christian practices such as the eucharist or baptism. Some hymns praise or address individual saints, particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary; such hymns are particularly prevalent in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and to some extent "High Church" Anglicanism.

	"God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" ancient Christmas carol, believed to date from about the 15th century. ... United Kingdom Category:Music in the 15th century
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

	"A mighty fortress" Description en:A Mighty Fortress is Our God Traditional Lutheran Hymn, Hedge translation
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

A writer of hymns is known as a hymnist or hymnodist, and the practice of singing hymns is called hymnody; the same word is used for the collectivity of hymns belonging to a particular denomination or period (e.g. "nineteenth century Methodist hymnody" would mean the body of hymns written and/or used by Methodists in the 19th century). A collection of hymns is called a hymnal or hymnary. These may or may not include music. A student of hymnody is called a hymnologist, and the scholarly study of hymns, hymnists and hymnody is hymnology. The music to which a hymn may be sung is a hymn tune.

In many Evangelical churches, traditional songs are classified as hymns while more contemporary worship songs are not considered hymns. The reason for this distinction is unclear, but according to some it is due to the radical shift of style and devotional thinking that began with the Jesus movement and Jesus music.

Music and accompaniment[link]

In ancient and medieval times, stringed instruments such as the harp, lyre and lute were used with psalms and hymns.

Since there is a lack of musical notation in early writings,^[3] the actual musical forms in the early church can only be surmised. During the Middle Ages a rich hymnody developed in the form of Gregorian chant or plainsong. This type was sung in unison, in one of eight church modes, and most often by monastic choirs. While they were written originally in Latin, many have been translated; a familiar example is the 4th century Of the Father's Heart Begotten sung to the 11th century plainsong Divinum Mysterium.

Western church[link]

Later hymnody in the Western church introduced four-part vocal harmony as the norm, adopting major and minor keys, and came to be led by organ and choir. It shares many elements with classical music.

Today, except for choirs, more musically inclined congregations and a cappella congregations, hymns are typically sung in unison. In some cases complementary full settings for organ are also published, in others organists and other accompanists are expected to transcribe the four-part vocal score for their instrument of choice.

To illustrate Protestant usage, in the traditional services and liturgies of the Methodist churches, which are based upon Anglican practice, hymns are sung (often accompanied by an organ) during the processional to the altar, during the receiving of the Eucharist, during the recessional, and sometimes at other points during the service. These hymns can be found in the United Methodist Hymnal. The Doxology is also sung after the tithes and offerings are brought up to the altar.

Contemporary Christian worship, as often found in Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, may include the use of contemporary worship music played with electric guitars and the drum kit, sharing many elements with rock music.

Other groups of Christians have historically excluded instrumental accompaniment, citing the absence of instruments in worship by the church in the first several centuries of its existence, and adhere to an unaccompanied a cappella congregational singing of hymns. These groups include the 'Brethren' (often both 'Open' and 'Exclusive'), the Churches of Christ, Mennonites, Primitive Baptists, and certain Reformed churches, although during the last century or so, several of these, such as the Free Church of Scotland have abandoned this stance.

Eastern church[link]

Eastern Christianity (the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches) have a very rich and ancient hymnographical tradition.

Eastern chant is almost always a cappella, and instrumental accompaniment is rare. The central form of chant in the Eastern Orthodoxy is Byzantine Chant, which is used to chant all forms of liturgical worship. Exceptions include the Coptic Orthodox tradition which makes use of the sistrum, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which also uses drums, cymbals and other instruments on certain occasions.

The development of Christian hymnody[link]

Thomas Aquinas, in the introduction to his commentary on the Psalms, defined the Christian hymn thus: "Hymnus est laus Dei cum cantico; canticum autem exultatio mentis de aeternis habita, prorumpens in vocem." ("A hymn is the praise of God with song; a song is the exultation of the mind dwelling on eternal things, bursting forth in the voice.")^[4]

The Protestant Reformation resulted in two conflicting attitudes to hymns. One approach, the regulative principle of worship, favoured by many Zwinglians, Calvinists and some radical reformers, considered anything that was not directly authorised by the Bible to be a novel and Catholic introduction to worship, which was to be rejected. All hymns that were not direct quotations from the Bible fell into this category. Such hymns were banned, along with any form of instrumental musical accompaniment, and organs were ripped out of churches. Instead of hymns, biblical psalms were chanted, most often without accompaniment, to very basic melodies. This was known as exclusive psalmody. Examples of this may still be found in various places, including the "free churches" of western Scotland.

The other Reformation approach, the normative principle of worship, produced a burst of hymn writing and congregational singing. Martin Luther is notable not only as a reformer, but as the author of many hymns including Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God), which is sung today even by Catholics, and Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ (Praise be to You, Jesus Christ) for Christmas. Luther and his followers often used their hymns, or chorales, to teach tenets of the faith to worshipers. The first Protestant hymnal was published in Bohemia in 1532 by the Unitas Fratrum. Count Zinzendorf, the Lutheran leader of the Moravian Church in the 18th century wrote some 2,000 hymns. The earlier English writers tended to paraphrase biblical texts, particularly Psalms; Isaac Watts followed this tradition, but is also credited as having written the first English hymn which was not a direct paraphrase of Scripture.^[5] Watts (1674–1748), whose father was an Elder of a dissenter congregation, complained at age 16, that when allowed only psalms to sing, the faithful could not even sing about their Lord, Christ Jesus. His father invited him to see what he could do about it; the result was Watts' first hymn, "Behold the glories of the Lamb."^[6] Found in few hymnals today, the hymn has eight stanzas in common meter and is based on Revelation 5:6, 8, 9, 10, 12.^[7]

Relying heavily on Scripture, Watts wrote metered texts based on New Testament passages that brought the Christian faith into the songs of the church. Isaac Watts has been called "the father of English hymnody," but Erik Routley sees him more as "the liberator of English hymnody," because his hymns, and hymns like them, moved worshipers beyond singing only Old Testament psalms, inspiring congregations and revitalizing worship.^[8]

Later writers took even more freedom, some even including allegory and metaphor in their texts.

Charles Wesley's hymns spread Methodist theology, not only within Methodism, but in most Protestant churches. He developed a new focus: expressing one's personal feelings in the relationship with God as well as the simple worship seen in older hymns. Wesley wrote:

Where shall my wondering soul begin?

How shall I all to heaven aspire?

A slave redeemed from death and sin,

A brand plucked from eternal fire,

How shall I equal triumphs raise,

Or sing my great deliverer's praise.

	Battle Hymn of the Republic The Battle Hymn of the Republic, performed by Frank C. Stanley, Elise Stevenson, and a mixed quartet in 1908.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Wesley's contribution, along with the Second Great Awakening in America led to a new style called gospel, and a new explosion of sacred music writing with Fanny Crosby, Lina Sandell, Philip Bliss, Ira D. Sankey, and others who produced testimonial music for revivals, camp meetings, and evangelistic crusades. The tune style or form is technically designated "gospel songs" as distinct from hymns. Gospel songs generally include a refrain (or chorus) and usually (though not always) a faster tempo than the hymns. As examples of the distinction, "Amazing Grace" is a hymn (no refrain), but "How Great Thou Art" is a gospel song. During the 19th century the gospel-song genre spread rapidly in Protestantism and, to a lesser but still definite extent, in Roman Catholicism; the gospel-song genre is unknown in the worship per se by Eastern Orthodox churches, which rely exclusively on traditional chants (a type of hymn).

The Methodist Revival of the 18th century created an explosion of hymn writing in Welsh, which continued into the first half of the 19th century. The most prominent names among Welsh hymn-writers are William Williams Pantycelyn and Ann Griffiths. The second half of the 19th century witnessed an explosion of hymn tune composition and choir singing in Wales.^[9]

Along with the more classical sacred music of composers ranging from Mozart to Monteverdi, the Catholic Church continued to produce many popular hymns such as Lead, Kindly Light, Silent Night, O Sacrament Divine and Faith of our Fathers.

Many churches today use contemporary worship music which includes a range of styles often influenced by popular music. This often leads to some conflict between older and younger congregants (see contemporary worship). This is not new; the Christian pop music style began in the late 1960s and became very popular during the 1970s, as young hymnists sought ways in which to make the music of their religion relevant for their generation.

This long tradition has resulted in a wide variety of hymns. Some modern churches include within hymnody the traditional hymn (usually describing God), contemporary worship music (often directed to God) and gospel music (expressions of one's personal experience of God). This distinction is not perfectly clear; and purists remove the second two types from the classification as hymns. It is a matter of debate, even sometimes within a single congregation, often between revivalist and traditionalist movements.

American developments[link]

African-Americans developed a rich hymnody from spirituals during times of slavery to the modern, lively black gospel style. The first influences of African American Culture into hymns came from Slave Songs of the United States a collection of slave hymns complied by William Francis Allen who had difficulty pinning them down from the oral tradition, and though he succeeded, he points out the awe inspiring effect of the hymns when sung in by their originators.^[10]

Thanks to Thomas Symmes^[who?] a new idea of how to sing hymns spread throughout the churches in which anyone would sing a hymn any way they felt led to; this was opposed by the views of Symmes colleagues^[who?] who felt it was "like Five Hundred different Tunes roared out at the same time."^{[citation needed]} William Billings, a singing school teacher, created the first tune book with only American born compositions. Within his books, Billings did not put as much emphasis on "common measure"^{[clarification needed]} which was the typical way hymns were sung, but he attempted "to have a Sufficiency in each measure"^{[clarification needed]}. The Boston Handel and Haydn Society aimed at raising the level of church music in America, publishing their "Collection of Church Music".^[when?] In the late 19th century Ira D. Sankey and Dwight L. Moody developed the relatively new subcategory of gospel hymns.^[11]

Hymn metres[link]

The metre indicates the number of syllables for the lines in each stanza of a hymn. This provides a means of marrying the hymn's text with an appropriate hymn tune for singing. In practice many hymns conform to one of a relatively small number of metres (syllable count and stress patterns). Care must be taken, however, to ensure that not only the metre of words and tune match, but also the stresses on the words in each line. Technically speaking an iambic tune, for instance, cannot be used with words of, say, trochaic metre.

The metre is often denoted by a row of figures besides the name of the tune, such as "87.87.87", which would inform the reader that each verse has six lines, and that the first line has eight syllables, the second has seven, the third line eight, etc. The metre can also be described by initials; L.M. indicates long metre, which is 88.88 (four lines, each eight syllables long); S.M. is short metre (66.86); C.M. is common metre (86.86), while D.L.M., D.S.M. and D.C.M. (the "D" stands for double) are similar to their respective single metres except that they have eight lines in a verse instead of four.^[12]

See also[link]

• Carol
• Chorale
• Contemporary worship music
• Doxology
• Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
• Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland
• List of Chinese Hymn Books
• List of Hymnals
• List of Roman Catholic hymns
• Metrical psalter
• Psalm
• Sacred Harp
• Shape note
• Vedic Chant

References[link]

External links[link]

The links below are restricted to either material that is historical or resources that are non-denominational or inter-denominational. Denomination-specific resources are mentioned from the relevant denomination-specific articles.

• "The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada". http://www.thehymnsociety.org/index.html. 
• "The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland". http://www.hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/. 
• "Examples of Byzantine Music for Hymns". http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/Index.html.  — 2000 pages of hymns in both staff and neumatic notation
• "HistoricHymns.com". http://www.historichymns.com.  — Site with extensive hymn searching tools

v t e Christian music Roots and Beginnings Chorale Hymn Negro spirituals Sacred Harp Shape note Jesus music Genres and Subgenres Contemporary Christian music Contemporary worship music Gospel music Fusion genres Christian rock Christian hardcore Christian metal Southern Gospel Traditional black gospel Christian alternative rock Christian punk Christian ska Christian country music Progressive Southern Gospel Christian hip hop Gospel blues Urban contemporary gospel Chant v t e Christian liturgical chant Eastern Armenian Byzantine Coptic Georgian Ethiopian Syrian Znamenny Western Ambrosian Anglican Beneventan Celtic Gallican Gelineau Gregorian Mozarabic Old Roman Lists Christian bands and artists by genre Christian country artists Christian dance, electronic, and techno artists Christian folk/folk rock artists Christian hardcore bands Christian instrumental/jazz/swing artists Christian metal bands Christian punk bands Christian vocal artists Christian record labels Gospel musicians Other topics Christianity Christian media Christian music industry Christian music festivals Portal Category

Chris Rice is an American songwriter who works in the contemporary Christian music, contemporary folk, and adult contemporary genres with a style similar to David Wilcox and James Taylor. He became a recording artist as well in 1996 after signing a contract with Michael W. Smith's record label and releasing his debut album, Deep Enough to Dream.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Chris Rice, a native of Clinton, Maryland, grew up as the second of four sons born to bookstore owners. His parents, and other adult mentors, influenced Rice's Christian faith and his early work with youth and college students.

Having taken only three years of piano lessons as a child, Rice did not aspire to a career in either music or student work. But frequent invitations to speak and lead music at his church's youth group events led to more such invitations throughout his college years at the University of Maryland, Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana, and Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. He holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Communication.^[1] While leading music and coaching high school soccer teams he began writing songs. What began as weekend and summer work with youth and college students soon turned into a full-time career during his twenties and thirties, and prompted Rice to write and perform mainly on the guitar.

For those two decades, Rice spent his time as an itinerant speaker and songwriter/musician, playing for high school and college conferences and camps nationwide. This schedule prepared Chris for his career as a signed recording artist, touring the country with a full band.

Career as a songwriter[link]

Rice's songwriting career began in the mid-1980s, after moving from his Washington, D.C., home to Nashville, Tenn. During that period several of Rice's songs were recorded by other artists, including Kathy Troccoli and Terri Gibbs. Rice's "Welcome To Our World," an original Christmas song since recorded by Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and John Tesh, moved Smith to urge his new label, Rocketown Records, to sign Rice as its first artist in 1996.

Solo artist[link]

With the help of Monroe Jones' production skills, Chris Rice recorded Deep Enough to Dream for a September 1997 release. Past the Edges followed a year later.

Rice's third album, Smell the Color 9, was issued in late 2000. This album was one of his most successful. It stretched his musical boundaries, by taking him from a folk-leaning songwriter into a pop-driven artist. Most of the tracks are less folk-influenced songs than previously. "The Face of Christ" is a shuffle-rock song about serving the less fortunate, based on Rice's encounters with the homeless. Rice talks about passing faith to the next generation in "Sailing With Russell", another song with a strong Bobby McFerrin influence on it. Two ballad-kind songs appeared: "Belong", taps into the human desire to belong, and points the listener to consider how a connection to God can fulfill that, and "Home Tonight," which takes the prodigal son's point of view, remembering how good things were at home with his father. The album's cover art (a man on a unicycle balancing on a high-wire) is a visual play on Rice's own balancing act, between being a well-known recording artist and an everyday person with an everyday life. The title track is an honest and thoughtful reference to the often difficult process of finding God.

In 2001, Rice surprised his fans with two piano-only instrumental releases that showcased a different side of his musical and arranging talents, not to mention his fondness for old hymns and Christmas songs. The names of the albums were The Living Room Sessions and The Living Room Sessions: Christmas. They were given these names because their songs were recorded on Rice's own living room grand piano.

With his sixth album, Run the Earth... Watch the Sky, released in March 2003, Chris again joined the production talents of his longtime friend and collaborator Monroe Jones, a partnership that has achieved more than 1 million unit sales. In this album, there were the modern folk leanings reminiscent of David Wilcox and James Taylor, but also Rice’s newfound admiration of earthy but radio-friendly pop in the vein of John Mayer and Travis. The album’s first single, "The Other Side of the Radio" featured sports driving guitar and percussion. "Me and Becky" recalled classic rock sounds from Chris’ own adolescence. "A lot of the record mentions my childhood or my teenage years so it fit to reach back into the earlier sounds from the ‘70s in some of the background vocals and string arrangements", he says about it.

These four studio releases (plus the two instrumental releases) fulfilled Rice's contractual commitment to Rocketown Records. Following his departure from the label, Rocketown released a couple of Chris Rice collections.

In June 2004, the hits collection Short Term Memories was released. This album chronicled his trajectory with most of Rice's hits ("Sometimes Love", "Deep Enough to Dream", "Smellin' Coffee", "The Other Side of the Radio" and others). There were also a few other minor hits ("Face of Christ", "Home Tonight"). New studio cuts included "Go Light Your World" (a Rice original first popularized by Kathy Troccoli), a new acoustic mix of "Untitled Hymn" and "Mama Prays".

A second hits collection, Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites followed in February 2005.

A new record label[link]

The year 2005 (album Amusing released) marked a major turning point in Rice's artistry. Leaving Rocketown Records at the end of his contractual agreement, Rice signed with independent label Eb+Flo Records, and made a marketing and distribution agreement with INO Records. INO's distribution through Sony/Columbia afforded Rice a new direction for marketing and distribution, no longer limiting his music to Christian radio format. His fifth studio release CD Amusing, released in August 2005, included love songs and other life topics, as well as some songs about his faith. For the first time in his career, Rice released radio singles to AC and Light Rock stations around the country, the first single being a light romantic song entitled "When Did You Fall (In Love With Me?)" which reached #8 on the Pop AC radio format and enjoyed Top Ten status throughout the summer months of 2006, solidifying Rice's presence on AC radio. A second AC hit, "Lemonade," began climbing the AC chart during the spring and summer of 2007.

With his success on the AC radio format, Rice released a side project hearkening back to his roots, a vocal hymns album, Peace Like a River: The Hymns Project, in November 2006.

The year 2006 proved to be a turning point in Rice's emphasis, with most of his attention and radio station visits and interviews involving pop AC stations across the United States, rather than his former attention to CCM radio. Following the success on AC radio, Rice released in July 2007 "What A Heart Is Beating For" an album which further positioned him as a pop artist, a collection of 13 songs, with only two containing faith themes.

Discography[link]

• Live By Faith (1992)
• Deep Enough to Dream (1997)
• Past the Edges (1998)
• Smell the Color 9 (2000)
• The Living Room Sessions (Instrumental) (2001)
• The Living Room Sessions: Christmas (Instrumental) (2001)
• Run the Earth... Watch the Sky (2003)
• Short Term Memories (Greatest Hits) (2004)
• Snapshots: Live and Fan Favorites (2005)
• Amusing (2005)
• Peace Like a River: The Hymns Project (2006)
• What a Heart is Beating For (2007)

EPs and Other Releases[link]

• Merry Chris Rice (2005) (iTunes release)
• When Did You Fall (Cozy Version) (2007) (iTunes Release)

Singles[link]

• "Christmas Party (Radio Single)
• "Deep Enough To Dream"
• "Smile"
• "Untitled Hymn (Come To Jesus)"
• "The Other Side of the Radio"
• "Cartoons"
• "Love Like Crazy"
• "When Did You Fall (In Love With Me)"
• "Lemonade"
• "Sad Song"

Awards[link]

• 2002 – Dove Award nominee for Instrumental Album of the Year – Living Room Sessions: Hymns
• 2000 – Dove Award nominee for Recorded Music Packaging
• 1999 – Dove Award winner for Male Vocalist of the Year and for participation in Special Event Album of the Year – Exodus
• 1998 – Nominated for six Dove Awards, including New Artist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year^[2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Chris Rice's personal website
• Thought Quotient - Interview with Chris Rice
• Rocketown Records' website
• Eb+Flo Records' website
• Promo: Free Chris Rice song "What a Heart is Beating For"
• CCMagazine.com's Live Chat Transcript with Chris
• Christianpost.com article titled, "Chris Rice Hits Mainstream Top 20"
• Christianpost.com article titled, "Chris Rice Seeks Broader Audience With 'Amusing'
• Lyrics to Songs by Chris Rice
• Growthtrac Music article titled, "Chris Rice: Straight from the Heart"
• Christianity Today's June 2005 Interview with Chris
• Living the Solutions Music Review of Run the Earth...Watch the Sky

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (May 2008)

Kathy Mattea
Background information
Birth name	Kathleen Alice Mattea
Born	(1959-06-21) June 21, 1959 (age 53) South Charleston, West Virginia, United States
Origin	Cross Lanes, West Virginia, USA
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals Guitar
Years active	1975–present
Labels	Mercury Nashville MCA Narada
Associated acts	Tim O'Brien
Website	mattea.com

Kathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea (pronounced ma-TAY-a)^[1] (born June 21, 1958, in South Charleston, West Virginia) is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. This total includes the number one hits "Goin' Gone", "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", "Come From the Heart" and "Burnin' Old Memories", as well as twelve additional Top Ten singles.

Life & career[link]

This section requires expansion with: Critical reception, info on each album, vocal and musical stylings.

Mattea was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, because it had the nearest hospital to her parents' home in Cross Lanes, where she grew up, graduating from nearby Nitro High School. She discovered her love of singing at Girl Scout camp. In 1976, while attending West Virginia University, she joined the bluegrass band Pennsboro, and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville. She worked as a tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame, did backup vocal work for Bobby Goldsboro, and sang demos for several Nashville songwriters and publishers including Nashville songwriter/producer Byron Hill who brought her to the attention of Frank Jones (then head of Mercury Records), who signed her to her first record deal in 1983.

Mattea's third album, 1986's folky Walk the Way the Wind Blows, proved to be her breakthrough both critically and commercially. Her cover of Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime" was her first major hit, reaching #3 (and in addition, earned Griffith notice as a songwriter), and the album produced three other top ten songs: "Walk the Way the Wind Blows" (#10), "You're the Power"(#5), and "Train of Memories" (#6). "Love at the Five and Dime" also drew attention because well-known country singer Don Williams sang harmony vocals on the track.

Further hit songs include her first #1, "Goin' Gone"; the truck-driving song "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" (1988); "Come From the Heart" and "Burnin' Old Memories" (both #1 hits in 1989); "She Came From Fort Worth" (1990); "Lonesome Standard Time" (1992); "Walking Away a Winner" (1994); "Nobody's Gonna Rain on Our Parade" (1994); "Maybe She's Human" (1994); and "455 Rocket" (1997, written by Gillian Welch^[2]). "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" in late May 1988, became the first single by a solo female to spend multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart since Dolly Parton's "You're the Only One" in August 1979; both singles were on top of that chart for two weeks.

The heartrending "Where've You Been," which Mattea's husband Jon Vezner co-wrote with singer/songwriter Don Henry, reached #10 on the country chart and won her a 1990 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal. Mattea is a repeat winner of the County Music Associations Female Vocalist of the Year, which she won on the success of "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses" and "Where've You Been."

Mattea won another Grammy in 1993 for her gospel-oriented Christmas album, Good News. Her first single from the album, "Mary, Did You Know?," went on to be covered by Kenny Rogers with Wynonna Judd, as well as Reba McEntire.

In 1994, Mattea collaborated with Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to contribute "Teach Your Children" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. Also on that album, Mattea teamed up with Jackson Browne to contribute "Rock Me on the Water". Also through the '90s, she often collaborated with Scottish folksinger songwriter Dougie MacLean.

Mattea subsequently moved to MCA Nashville^[3] and, in 2000, released the ballad-heavy The Innocent Years, a heartfelt tribute to her ailing father. Wanting to explore her taste for Celtic folk, Mattea hopped labels to Narada, for whom she debuted in 2002 with the eclectic Roses.

With her social activism and her taste for songs with introspective lyrics, it has been often said that Mattea owes as much to the traditions of folk music as mainstream country.

Her 2008 release, Coal, combined her social activism with songs about coal-mining. It debuted at #64 on the country albums chart, and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Traditional Folk category.

Kathy Mattea was honored as a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame 2011 class of inductees. She enjoys strong support from a very active fan club, whose members refer to themselves as Matteaheads, and critical acclaim for her albums as she continues to tour and perform.

Social activism[link]

Mattea has been heavily involved in HIV/AIDS-related charities, beginning in the early 1990s, and is often credited with being among the first to champion this cause among the country music community. She is the recipient of the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award, and the Harvard AIDS Institute Leadership Award for this work.

She performed with Mary Chapin Carpenter on VH1's very first Save The Music concert, which also starred Bette Midler.

In 1991, Mattea took part in Voices That Care, a multi-artist project that featured other top names in music for a one-off single to raise money for the allied troops in the Gulf War. The project included Garth Brooks, Kenny Rogers, Randy Travis, and introduced Celine Dion to the American audience.

Mattea currently travels the country presenting Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and speaking to crowds about the importance of fighting global warming and the environmental and physical devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Discography[link]

Further reading[link]

• Millard, Bob. (1998). "Kathy Mattea". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pages 329–330.

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2008)

External links[link]

• Kathy Mattea's Official Website
• Kathy Mattea at the Internet Movie Database