I write a weekly feature at
Liberal Country Fan on a liberal country artist every week. I thought I'd cross-post this here to make Kossacks more aware how many country artists are actually on our side. Don't buy into the press that all country artists and fans are conservative. It's not true!
Liberal Country Artist of the Week: Kathy Mattea
Back in the early 90's, you couldn't turn on a music awards show without seeing a sea of red ribbons. Stars were wearing them to increase awareness of AIDS, a disease that had already been responsible for scores of deaths, but the public was still being educated on. Early association of the disease with drug users and homosexuals had marginalized conversation about AIDS throughout most of the 1980's. Red ribbons weren't a major gesture, but certainly seemed the least that the entertainment industry could do to help raise awareness.
However, even as late as 1992, the Country Music Association was uncomfortable with any discussion of the disease on their annual awards. Instead, they chose for artists to wear green ribbons during that year's award show, to represent environmental awareness. Mattea took the stage that night wearing four ribbons: one green ribbon for environmental awareness, and three red ribbons, one for each friend of hers who had died of AIDS. Her voice cracked as she explained the significance of those ribbons to the audience. Mattea recounted her memories of that event to Ken Pualson in 2004 on his weekly radio show "Speaking Freely":
Well, I had lost several friends to AIDS, and I had just, not too long before that, found that someone that I had met through the CMA Awards, ironically--he was a film producer and had produced a little piece on me when I was up for the Horizon Award, and we became good friends. And he had recently died, and I had been to see him not too long before that, and I knew something wasn't right, but he didn't talk to me about it. And it's hard to remember back to when people really didn't talk about it because you didn't know who was safe and who wasn't. And I tell you, that was the point where I just snapped, you know, just thought, you know, "This dear, sweet person is gone from my life, and he couldn't even tell me what was going on." And I thought, "That's just ridiculous. How many other people are walking around afraid and isolated from people who would love to be able to have compassion for them and help them on their journey?"
So, I remember I was trying to-- you know, again, most of the major AIDS advocacy organizations were in New York and L.A. and Toronto and Atlanta and bigger cities. They didn't know from country music, either. So I had to sort of go out and say, "Look," you know, "I live in a different world, but I'm making myself available, and I want to know how I can help." And the Red Hot project people, I met up with them and some of the people from AMFAR, and we kind of announced this Red Hot and Country project, and it was the same week as the CMA Awards, and I was publicly challenged in the paper. It said, "That's great that she's doing all this great stuff and all that, but the people in country music world are not gonna know what the red ribbon means. You know, they may not be as educated to the thing, and here's hoping that she says something if she gets a microphone." So suddenly, you know, I'm publicly challenged. And so we went to the CMA guys and said, "Look, I don't want to buck you guys, but this woman in the paper has a really good point, and we should tell people." And they gave me no answer. They were just very neutral and did not come back with it, so I just had to search my heart right before I walked out on stage. And I just decided that I had to. It just felt like the right thing to do at the moment.
It was a moment of great courage that won Mattea great attention, leading to her being the first recipient of the Harvard Institute AIDS Awareness Award in 1994. Brian Hanna, producer of the Red, Hot & Country AIDS fundraising CD, said at the time:
Kathy has almost single-handedly opened the door for AIDS to be talked about in the country music industry. She has educated millions of listeners of country music, which is the most popular form of music in America today. Kathy was willing to do something unpopular -- ask people in rural communities to pay attention to something that may not yet be apparent in their lives.
Mattea has been making stands for what she believes in, both in and out of the studio, for her entire career. In addition to her vocal support for AIDS causes, she has done charity work for countless organizations, including Second Harvest. Recently, she testified in front of the TennCare Oversight Committee to discourage them from making harmful cuts in TennCare. She used her own father's experience, noting "he wouldn't be here" if health care had not been readily available to him. She challenged the lawmakers:
"It's a difficult thing, to give someone something and then take it back. How can you sleep at night if you have to make a decision like this?"
Mattea also raised funds for the families of her native West Virginia who lost relatives in the mining disaster earlier this year. She released a recording of "The Slender Thread That Binds Us Here" that she performed via satellite for the memorial service in Sago, West Virginia, with proceeds going to the families left behind.
Despite her visibility on these issues, and on the campaign trail for Democratic presidential candidates, she does not view herself as a political person, even though her CMA speech has cemented that image in many minds:
I had no idea that saying something about AIDS would be considered so risky. It just never occurred to me. So I don't know if I can be objective about whether it had a negative affect on my career. It's not my nature to be a political activist. I was publicly challenged to speak out. I had friends dying, and I felt I had to step up to the plate. It happened because of how it was affecting people in my life.
More often than not, Mattea is simply comfortable letting the music speak for her. She has recorded many songs that appeal for peace and social justice, often calling for greater humanity towards those in need. In her 1993 hit "Standing Knee Deep In A River (Dying of Thirst)", she notes how easy it is to turn away from the homeless, who are suffering on the streets of the richest nation in the world:
So the sidewalk is crowded, the city goes by
And I rush through another day.
And a world full of strangers turn their eyes to me
But I just look the other way.
They roll by just like water, and I guess we never learn
They go through life parched and empty
Standing knee deep in a river, and dying of thirst.
When she contributed to the Celtic Crossroads album by John Whelan in 1997, she chose to record the heartbreaking call for peace in northern Ireland "There Were Roses", which details how two friends, the Protestant Isaac Scott and the Catholic Sean McDonald both are killed by the violence between the warring parties. After Isaac is killed, McDonald is chosen to be the victim to even the score:
Now fear it filled the countryside, and fear filled every home.
And late one night, a car came prowling round the Ryan Road.
A Catholic would be killed tonight to even up the score.
Oh Christ, it's young MacDonald that they've taken from the door.
"Isaac was my friend!" he cried, he begged them with his fear.
But centuries of hatred have ears that cannot hear.
"An eye for an eye" was all that filled their minds.
And another eye for another eye, till everyone is blind.
Now I don't know where the moral is, or how this song should end.
But I wonder just how many wars are fought between good friends.
And those who give the orders, they are not the ones to die.
It's Scott and McDonald and the likes of you and I.
As the war effort ramped up in 2003, she was opening up her sets with "Guns of Love", which she referred to as her "counterpoint to Toby Keith":
I don't understand why nothing changes
We take the same roads time and time again
We let it all ride on pride and vengeance
Knowing it's a game nobody's gonna win
So bet on your anger if that's what you choose
Nothing's gonna change, everybody's gonna lose
Today, Mattea continues to record and tour, with her music leaning closer to her folk roots and engaging her moral and spiritual beliefs. Her most recent album closes with the slave spiritual "Wade In The Water", and features an acoustic cover of "Gimme Shelter." And she continues to make her call for greater humanity and charity. As she wrote on her blog in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, all of us doing something small will make a big difference:
I just wanted to say that I discovered/remembered something this week. After a few days of bewilderment and random tears about Hurricane Katrina, I opened my checkbook and sent some money, and then volunteered a couple of days at a warehouse that's processing donations. I know some places are turning folks away if they're not yet trained volunteers, but trust me, if you want to help, there are definitely places you can find that need you. And it doesn't even have to be direct, in my opinion. Give some time to someone who needs it, in the name of all those folks who need the help of others at this moment. Offer it up. I guarantee it will make you feel less helpless, less despairing, and more filled up during this devastating sadness. I haven't burst into tears once since I did those things. In my experience, it makes a difference to do what I can, when I can. And if we all do something, even something small, THAT will make a huge difference in the Big Picture.
Words of wisdom by a woman who clearly lives by them.
Previous Artists of the Week:
Todd Snider
Emmylou Harris
Pam Tillis
Links:
Liberal Country Fan
Country Universe
Music Row Democrats
Kathy Mattea