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Oh yeah, 1986, when Kathy Mattea was still a country singer, she was one of them, the "new traditionalists" at that point in time, before she became such an awesome pop singer. Walk the Way the Wind Blows is the rootsiest (in the American sense of the word) album Mattea had recorded up to that time. With a cast of players that included progressive bluegrass upstart Béla Fleck, country legend Don Williams, Wendy Waldman, Buddy Spicher, up and comer Vince Gill, bass king Bob Wray, and a slew of others, Mattea took honky tonk songs, shimmied them up against bluegrass energy and funky horns ("Train of Memories"), and came up with something entirely different. And while it's erratic in places, Walk the Way the Wind Blows is a fine outing overall. It's on the funky, rocked-up or old-timey down swing jazzers like "Evenin'" where the disc works the best. Her ballad singing hadn't gotten to the place it did just three years later; on "Reason to Live" it falls a tad flat, and the stirring conviction of her later singing is not yet in place here. The one exception is her cover of Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime." Its pacing and restraint -- courtesy of expert production by Allen Reynolds and Don Williams' harmony vocal -- make the song a mind movie. Mattea's vocal tells the story as if she is looking back on her own life instead of being a reportorial account of fictional characters. The refrain with Williams is chillingly beautiful, as if, now old and gray, they are singing to one another in the moonlight. The stellar dobro and Cajun accordion carry the lyric into the stratosphere on "Back Up Grinnin' Again." Mattea found a formula; restless as she is, changing direction and producers so often, she didn't stick with it long. Nonetheless, Walk the Way the Wind Blows is one of her better efforts.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
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Craig Bickhardt, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer - Kathy Mattea, MainArtist - Bruce Bouton, Steel Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Tim O'Brien, Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Mark O'Connor, Fiddle, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Brent Rowan, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Kenny Malone, Percussion, AssociatedPerformer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Wendy Waldman, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Craig Bickhardt, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer - Kathy Mattea, Background Vocalist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Wayne Jackson, Horn, AssociatedPerformer - Ray Flacke, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - BELA FLECK, Banjo, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Jim Horn, Horn, AssociatedPerformer - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Chris Leuzinger, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, Percussion, AssociatedPerformer - JIMBEAU HINSON, ComposerLyricist - Quitman Dennis, Horn, AssociatedPerformer - James Anderson Byrd, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Kathy Mattea, MainArtist - Flip Anderson, Organ, AssociatedPerformer - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Vince Gill, Vocals, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Chris Leuzinger, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - JOANNE CHRISTY, ComposerLyricist - JOHNNY PIERCE, ComposerLyricist - Geoff Levin, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Kathy Mattea, MainArtist - Tim O'Brien, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Ray Flacke, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Mitchell Parish, ComposerLyricist - BELA FLECK, Banjo, AssociatedPerformer - Mark O'Connor, Fiddle, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Kenny Malone, Percussion, AssociatedPerformer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Harry White, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Kathy Mattea, Acoustic Guitar, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - JOHN JACKSON, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Jerry Douglas, Dobro, AssociatedPerformer - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Charlie McCoy, Harmonica, AssociatedPerformer - Charlie Anderson, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Tommy Cozart, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Bill Donohue, Piano, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Kathy Mattea, MainArtist - Bruce Bouton, Steel Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Don Williams, Vocals, AssociatedPerformer - Ray Flacke, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Kenny Malone, Percussion, AssociatedPerformer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Chris Leuzinger, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - NANCI GRIFFITH, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Kathy Mattea, MainArtist - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Donny Lowery, ComposerLyricist - Jim Photoglo, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Wendy Waldman, Acoustic Guitar, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer, ComposerLyricist - K. Susan Taylor, Guitar, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Craig Bickhardt, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer - Kathy Mattea, Background Vocalist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Don Goodman, ComposerLyricist - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Jerry Douglas, Dobro, AssociatedPerformer - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Kenny Malone, Percussion, AssociatedPerformer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Chris Leuzinger, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Buddy Spicher, Fiddle, AssociatedPerformer - Bessyl Duhon, Accordion, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Craig Bickhardt, Acoustic Guitar, Background Vocalist, AssociatedPerformer - Kathy Mattea, Background Vocalist, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Kenny Malone, Percussion, AssociatedPerformer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Mike Leech, String Arranger, AssociatedPerformer - Roy Christensen, Cello, AssociatedPerformer - Craig William Bickhardt, ComposerLyricist - F.C. Collins, ComposerLyricist
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Rodney Crowell, ComposerLyricist - Kathy Mattea, MainArtist - Bobby Wood, Keyboards, AssociatedPerformer - Mark Miller, Mixer, Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Allen Reynolds, Producer - Bob Wray, Bass Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Pat Flynn, Acoustic Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Chris Leuzinger, Electric Guitar, AssociatedPerformer - Milton Sledge, Drums, AssociatedPerformer - Charlie McCoy, Harmonica, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Album review
Oh yeah, 1986, when Kathy Mattea was still a country singer, she was one of them, the "new traditionalists" at that point in time, before she became such an awesome pop singer. Walk the Way the Wind Blows is the rootsiest (in the American sense of the word) album Mattea had recorded up to that time. With a cast of players that included progressive bluegrass upstart Béla Fleck, country legend Don Williams, Wendy Waldman, Buddy Spicher, up and comer Vince Gill, bass king Bob Wray, and a slew of others, Mattea took honky tonk songs, shimmied them up against bluegrass energy and funky horns ("Train of Memories"), and came up with something entirely different. And while it's erratic in places, Walk the Way the Wind Blows is a fine outing overall. It's on the funky, rocked-up or old-timey down swing jazzers like "Evenin'" where the disc works the best. Her ballad singing hadn't gotten to the place it did just three years later; on "Reason to Live" it falls a tad flat, and the stirring conviction of her later singing is not yet in place here. The one exception is her cover of Nanci Griffith's "Love at the Five and Dime." Its pacing and restraint -- courtesy of expert production by Allen Reynolds and Don Williams' harmony vocal -- make the song a mind movie. Mattea's vocal tells the story as if she is looking back on her own life instead of being a reportorial account of fictional characters. The refrain with Williams is chillingly beautiful, as if, now old and gray, they are singing to one another in the moonlight. The stellar dobro and Cajun accordion carry the lyric into the stratosphere on "Back Up Grinnin' Again." Mattea found a formula; restless as she is, changing direction and producers so often, she didn't stick with it long. Nonetheless, Walk the Way the Wind Blows is one of her better efforts.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 10 track(s)
- Total length: 00:34:16
- Main artists: Kathy Mattea
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Island Mercury
- Genre: Blues/Country/Folk Country
© 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc. ℗ 1986 Mercury Records, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
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