Kathy Mattea photo by James Minchin, courtesy of Captain Potato Records.

Kathy wanted someone who could guide her with a firm, knowledgeable hand to work as the album's producer. Marty Stuart is well-known as a singer-songwriter but has been gaining a reputation as a seasoned producer as well, and he seemed the logical choice.

"Marty has a relationship to a commercial career and to this music, just like me; he understands that balance. And he's been playing it since he was thirteen; he has a vocabulary in hillbilly music," Kathy says. "He brought things into focus that I couldn't see on my own. He's a dream to work with, he's just brilliant and so generous."

The pickers on this album are a small, impressive lot that were as carefully chosen as the songs and the producer. Providing percussion on Kathy's first drum-less album is Byron House on upright bass. "Byron is very important to this record," Kathy says. "His slap bass is a big part of the sound. He is a total ensemble player, a brilliant musician with no ego."

Kathy has played with guitarist Bill Cooley for 20 years and calls him "my silent partner, my unspoken collaborator on everything I do... I have been orbiting around him, musically, for a long time." Stuart Duncan offers mandolin, banjo (which is featured on his own transitional track with "Sally in the Garden"), and fiddle. "He's like
Appalachian yoga," Mattea says. "There's never a note that doesn't come out perfectly. It's so Zen."

Kathy Mattea photo by James Minchin, courtesy of Captain Potato Records.

These three main pickers are joined by Marty, who plays guitar, mandolin, mandola, and sings with Patty Loveless for background vocals on "Blue Diamond Mines." Also supplying background vocals are Tim O'Brien ("my brother," Mattea says) and his sister, Mollie O'Brien, who belt it out on "Green Rolling Hills." John Catchings offers a haunting cello, Mattea band member and studio veteran Randy Leago contributes keyboard and accordion accents, and legendary steel player Fred Newell makes a guest appearance.

Singer, songs, producer, pickers have all come together flawlessly to form a career record for Kathy and a great gift for music lovers. Kathy says she had to dig really deep, to get to the dark and light places that held the power for her to let these songs come forth; but on the other hand, she sometimes worried that the songs were "almost too effortless to sing." Upon admitting this to Marty, he didn't miss a beat before telling her that he wasn't surprised. "That's because it's in your blood, pal," he said. Kathy likes this explanation. "I think there's a mystery there: that somewhere in me, in my DNA, there's my great grandmother singing, and my grandmother, and my people, singing through me, with me" she says.

"Maybe that's why it didn't feel like work."