Kathy Mattea on stage in Marion, Va., Feb. 6

Risks and Kathy Mattea fit like hey and y’all.

And so it goes with the coal miner’s granddaughter via her album “Coal.”

Haven’t heard it? Then hear plenty when Mattea headlines this month’s Song of the Mountains on Feb. 6 at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Va.

Look to listen as well to the likes of Robin and Linda Williams and the fabulous Junior Sisk.

Regarding Mattea, she built a career on country. Then she explored Celtic and folk and bluegrass, and now Appalachian music via “Coal.” Risky?

“My biggest fear was that people would roll their eyes and write me off,” Mattea said by phone on Tuesday morning from her home in Nashville, Tenn. “But that’s the risk you have to take.”

Risks. Even more than 25 years after signing her first record contract, after charming the charts with such singles as “Goin’ Gone” and “Untold Stories,” Mattea still stokes the fire.

This time that materialized as “Coal.” Eleven coal-blackened tracks from “The L & N Don’t Stop Here Anymore” to “Black Lung,” the album equates to challenge encountered and challenge met.

“That’s my blessing, and it’s a curse,” Mattea said. “When Marty Stuart signed on to [produce] this record, yeah, I’m willing to dive off the cliff.”

To wit, the elegiac-voiced Mattea exited her creative comfort zone.

“It changed the way I sing,” Mattea said. “When you hear Hazel Dickens sing ‘Black Lung,’ it will raise the hair on the back of your neck. It took me months to wrap myself around that song to the point where I could sing it in public.”

Bear in mind that Mattea owns a voice that works extraordinarily well even with symphonies. She’s polished. Yet listen as on 1989’s “Where’ve You Been,” and Mattea can sure summon a tear. But still, “Coal” demanded something else entirely.

“It’s not about singing pretty,” she said of “Black Lung.” “It’s about tapping into that anguish. She was wailing. She’s grieving. I wanted to find my own version of that.”

Hearing Mattea emote “Black Lung” equates to staring into the center of a shattered soul.

“It was daring to try to articulate something that raw,” she said.

Daring sure describes “Coal” as an album.

“Marty Stuart said, ‘It’s in your blood,’ ” Mattea said. “It’s interesting to me how many people relate to this.”

Mattea and most any singer worth a hoot in a holler build careers upon the foundations of fans and their belief in the music. Number-one singles, Mattea’s had them. Sold-out shows, plenty. But then so have scores of other singers.

However, not even some of the legends have notched a signature song, a song that stands above all others in an artist’s career like a beacon of brilliance. Well, Mattea has one, 1988’s “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses.”

“Oh, it’s almost a standard,” she said. “To have one like that in your arsenal is a blessing. I’m really fortunate.”

Indeed.
From working as a guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville to hit-churning country singer to miner of Appalachia via “Coal,” Mattea astounds even herself.

“Even in the middle of it all I’d wake up in the middle of the night in Nashville and go, ‘Wow! I’m a country music star!’ ” Mattea said. “It was like winning the lottery.”

And now thanks to that pedigree, Mattea cherishes opportunities such as “Coal.”

“It’s such a great gift, this record,” Mattea said.

IF YOU GO
What: Song of the Mountains
Who: Kathy Mattea, Robin and Linda Williams, Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice, and the New North Carolina Ramblers
When: Feb. 6, 7 p.m.
Where: Lincoln Theatre, 117 E. Main St., Marion, Va.
Admission: $25
Info: (276) 783-6093
Web and audio: http://www.mattea.com
And: http://www.songofthemountains.org

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .