Kathy Mattea - Collection of Hits (CD)

Early Hits compilation... needs an update!

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Mar 11, 2006 | 1 out of 1 found this Collection of Hits review helpful

Pros: Vocals, music, production

Cons: Incomplete selection... as usual

OK so I am lost in the '80s lately... is that such a bad thing? [Asked rhetorically, of course... don't ask my kids that one!]

Kathy Mattea had a real string of great music from the mid '80s to mid '90s. This album is still the closest thing we have to a retrospective of the era, and it only covers to about 1990. Her classic "Where've You Been" [One of the all time tear-jerkin'est songs ever written] was actually brand new with the release of this album.

Two major omissions then are the classics "Time Passes By" and "Asking us to Dance". And there are several others that have been neglected, both from before and after 1990.

So many artists of the 80s are in dire need of having their careers documented properly. Mattea is a prime example.

I mean, does it make any sense to cover a career like that on a disk with ten songs and NO liner notes at all? I think not.

Still... If I have learned anything collecting the music of the 1980s it is to be thankful for what ya do have.

There may only be 10 songs here, but they are all classics, and they make you wonder, each one, how a vocalist like Kathy ever got lost in the shuffle of changing taste in country music. She is so good she makes you laugh at the "hot singing models" currently dominating CMT. "Hot Young Country," my foot!

Some of the highlights?

LOVE AT THE FIVE AND DIME-- Writer Nanci Griffith was an obscure Texas folkie til Kathy made this song an enormous country hit. The story of a long love between two old folks was radio friendly in Kathy's version, and although I am in the minority on this I still prefer Kathy's remake to the original [and I am a fairly big Nanci Griffith fan, too.]

GOING GONE-- Wow, what a song. It was a poem really, with it's lighthouse imagery and stunning chorus. A true classic. One of my late wife's favorite songs, so I am biased.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?-- I remember Kathy's husband Jon Vezner relating that this song was a true story of his grandparents, written after the grandma had Ahlzheimers and could recognize ONE person. Talk about an emotional song!

18 WHEELS AND A DOZEN ROSES-- Give Kathy credit for having 3 HUGE hits about long marriages. This was maybe her biggest hit ever and it's another wonderful song.

UNTOLD STORIES-- A bluegrass song written by Tim O'Brien. Kathy and Tim had a long association together that benefitted both parties a lot. I have always like this song about closure. It rings home with me in many ways.

THE BATTLE HYMN OF LOVE-- A great manifesto of Christian marriage written by the great Paul Overstreet. This one is my all time favorite song by Mattea. The duet with Tim O'Brien works on every level.

The remaining four songs here are great also and this CD promises hours of joy to whoever invests in a copy.

Again, I just think we need something more comprehensive. Here is an artist who definitely deserves it.