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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mattea Made Perfect Summer’s Night Of Song

Kathy Mattea Friday night, Festival at Sandpoint

The Festival at Sandpoint experienced a warming trend on Friday.

The evening was pleasant enough for shirtsleeves, the band was hot, and Kathy Mattea’s rich alto voice was like maple syrup poured over melting butter.

Mattea’s stage presence was just as warm and welcoming as her voice, as if we had all just stopped by to pass the time with her on her West Virginia porch. Except Mattea made it clear that, all things considered, she’d rather be in Sandpoint.

“We want to be the house band at the Festival,” said Mattea, in a speaking voice almost as musical as her singing voice. “Every year, someone in the band says, ‘Has Sandpoint asked us back yet?’ And I’m not just schmoozing you guys.”

At one point, she announced that a wedding party was in the audience, and she paused to sing an impromptu verse and chorus of “Chapel of Love.”

“That was cheesy, but heartfelt,” she said, to laughter.

Mattea’s voice was as rich and full as ever, which was wonderful to hear because since her last visit to Sandpoint in 1993, she had suffered a broken blood vessel in her vocal cord. Her set encompassed a variety of styles, from commercial country to straight folk to gospel.

A few tunes in her set didn’t seem particularly inspired. A few sounded like generic radio fare, in which even the titles were cliched (“Nobody’s Gonna Rain On Our Parade”).

But an uncommonly large percentage of her songs are rich with meaning and emotion, including “Time Passes By,” a gentle reminder that nothing remains the same forever, and “Standing Knee Deep a River (Dying of Thirst),” a reminder not to take friends for granted. Even her truck-driving song “18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses” turns out to be a sweet tune about a couple’s enduring love.

And the emotional high point of any Mattea concert has come to be “Where’ve You Been?,” an almost unbearably poignant song about a couple that has spent every night together for 60 years. Now one of them has Alzheimer’s, causing the question in the title to have both literal and symbolic meaning.

Still, the best portion of the show came mid-concert with two lesser-known but just as beautiful songs in a row. The second of these was Dougie MacLean’s powerful Scottish folk anthem “I Am Ready for the Storm.” The first was a shimmering folk-poem called “The Summer of My Dreams,” describing the perfect day in the perfect summer.

As Mattea pointed out, “A little bit like today.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo