Description: Kathy Mattea, the beloved, Grammy-winning singer of such classics as “18 Wheels and A Dozen Roses,” “Where’ve You Been,” and many other hits says that her new album offered her a “re-education” in singing. That album, COAL is a re-education for the listener as well, a record that reshapes the way we think about music.
Kathy Mattea could hardly contain her amusement. The West Virginia-born country singer hasn’t had a song on the country charts in nearly 30 years, but after the airing of Ken Burns’ eight-part Country Music documentary, she woke up last week to find that both her greatest hits collection and her 1989 song “Where You’ve Been” were included among the 40 top-selling country songs and albums on online retailers like Amazon and iTunes.
“I’ve been laughing about it all day,” says Mattea, who served as a consultant and talking head in the documentary. “I’d been thinking to myself that this documentary was going to be great for country music, but I never thought about it in a personal way. Now I’m just a giggly little school girl. I’m 60 years old. To wake up with a couple things in the Top 40 is pretty funny.”
Mattea is just one of a number of country artists, living and deceased, whose music has seen a dramatic spikes in sales and streaming in the wake of Burns’ documentary. The day after Country Music‘s finale, 14 out of the 20 top-selling country albums on iTunes were from artists who’d been prominently featured in the series, like Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline, and Willie Nelson. Emmylou Harris alone had six albums featured in the genre’s Top 100 best-selling chart. At one point, 63 of the Top 100 spots on Ama
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