The Mike Harding Show - 01/09/2010

Mike Harding presents an hour of the very best in folk, roots and acoustic music, including an interview with the acclaimed country-folk singer Kathy Mattea. Having made her name with country hits such as Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses and Where've You Been, Kathy Mattea's 2008 album Coal marked a musical diversion, concentrating on the traditional soundscape of her Appalachian homeland. Mattea grew up in a mining community near Charleston in West Virginia, and decided to record a whole album of coal mining songs in the wake of the 2006 Sago Mine Disaster, which claimed twelve lives. The resulting collection of songs was a heartfelt tribute to the tough lives and scarred mountains that typify the American mining communities with which she feels a deep affinity. Mike Harding met Kathy Mattea backstage at this summer's Cambridge Folk Festival to talk about Coal and find out what Kathy has lined up for the future. Includes music from Coal and a live performance from Kathy Mattea's set at the 2010 Cambridge Folk Festival.