POP MUSIC REVIEW : Vocalist Kathy Mattea Scores Big in Show’s 2nd Half

With recent Country Music Assn. nominations for best female vocalist, album of the year, single of the year and song of the year, Kathy Mattea is in contention to jump into Nashville’s first rank of female performers.

The first half of Mattea’s early show Tuesday at the Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana didn’t give much indication that she is ready to step up to the level of such performers as Reba McEntire and Emmylou Harris. But a strong, adventurous second half proved that Mattea can go far beyond the proficient-but-routine song interpretations heard on “Untasted Honey,” the album that won her all of those nominations. By the end of her 65-minute set, the dark-haired singer from Cross Lanes, W. Va., looked like a performer of limitless potential.

In the early going, Mattea showed off a pretty, full-bodied voice but failed to bring much depth of feeling or sense of emotional complexity to a song. She gave a pleasant reading of “Love at the Five and Dime,” the 1986 single that was her first big hit, but her version failed to capture the lovely mystery planted in the song (for that, check out the definitive version sung by the song’s author, Nanci Griffith). On “Untasted Honey,” a song about a woman who gives up a sheltering relationship to break out on her own and experience the world, Mattea sounded stiffly anthem-like. Her one-dimensional interpretation gave no indication of the emotional trauma involved in such a decision.

The problem with “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” the number that is up for single and song of the year, is that the song itself is annoyingly one-dimensional. It is about an interstate trucker making his last run and looking forward to a blissful retirement cruising the country in a Winnebago with his wife. This bow to the middle-American fantasy of an idyllic old age is a shrewd piece of marketing (with the U.S. population aging, look for a lot more songs along the lines of “grow old along with me/the best is yet to be,” etc.). But “Eighteen Wheels” has about as much to do with the realities of aging as the legend of the Fountain of Youth. Mattea milked it for its sentimentality, which, in fact, is about all the song offers.

After that, an about face. “Life as We Knew It,” a sad waltz, exhibited one of Mattea’s real strengths. Her singing is dignified and controlled, not falsely over-emoted. That allows her to achieve uncommon depth and emotional complexity on songs about getting over a heartbreak and getting on with one’s life. In a more airy, pop-oriented vein, “Goin’ Gone” was a tuneful treat, a fervent love song in which Mattea avoided swooning schmaltz.

Then came the surprises that really lifted the show. Backed only by drummer Tommy Cozart’s clicking sticks, Mattea sang a darkly forceful a cappella version of an old work song, “Timber.” Then came some playful Western swing, followed by a sassy, hard-charging countrified version of Bobby Womack’s vintage R&B-rocker; “It’s All Over Now.” Nothing on Mattea’s recent albums hints at this sort of stylistic range or venturesomeness. Backed by an excellent, well-drilled band that featured Robert Bowlin doing a Ricky Skaggs turn with deft acoustic guitar leads, mandolin picking and fiddle solos, Mattea ended her set with classy honky-tonk and a lively train-rhythm chugger.

But she saved her best for the encore. “Leaving West Virginia,” a song Mattea wrote, was a warm, lovely, and truthful evocation of the mixed feelings involved in leaving the nest.

“So far, I’ve lived (in Nashville) 10 years and I’ve written one song that I have the guts to play in public,” Mattea said by way of introduction. From the way her ultimately engaging show went, she should always go with her more venturesome instincts.