Environmental Issues Move Kathy Mattea to Speak Out

[Uncle Joe]

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007704090335


Monday, 04/09/07

By BEVERLY KEEL

"Kathy Mattea has delivered eight speeches around the country since she attended Al Gore's training sessions for presenting his slide show made famous in the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

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"Once I got my own point of view about it, I felt more comfortable. I am not a scientific expert, but I have an experience that I can communicate, my own experience around the slide show and what happened for me the first time I saw this information. I saw Mr. Gore give the lecture last year at Vanderbilt, and I didn't sleep for two days. I was consumed with what I can do to help."

The West Virginia native, who'll receive an honorary doctorate from West Virginia University in May, recently completed a Marty Stuart-produced album with a historical coal-mining theme. "That puts you in touch with mountain-top removal and coal and carbon dioxide and brings you all the way back around to environmental issues. It's interesting how it's all tying together."

On Thursday, Kathy appears in her first headlining show at the Ryman, a fundraiser for the Mental Health Association of Middle Tennessee. Called Jammin' to Beat the Blues, it also features Taylor Swift, Riders in the Sky and The Wrights."