{"id":29947,"date":"2018-10-15T09:30:34","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=29947"},"modified":"2018-10-15T09:30:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T13:30:38","slug":"on-stage-kathy-mattea-finds-her-voice-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=29947","title":{"rendered":"On Stage: Kathy Mattea finds her voice, again"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, Entertainment Editor, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Kathy Mattea<\/p><\/div>\n

Sometimes, dealing with your body as you grow older is like dealing with an old car. Everything works, but some of the parts just aren\u2019t working as well as they used to work.<\/p>\n

Just ask Kathy Mattea.<\/p>\n

Mattea, a country music star who is headlining a show \u2013 \u201cKathy Mattea: The Acoustic Living Room Songs & Stories\u201d — on October 16 at the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808<\/a>,\u00a0www.st94.com<\/a>), recently had to deal with an aging voice.<\/p>\n

Kathy Mattea has enjoyed the kind of success many artists only dream of — two GRAMMY wins, four CMA Awards, four Number 1 country singles, and five gold albums (plus a platinum collection of her greatest hits).<\/p>\n

The dream almost ended when Mattea entered her 50s and began to find her voice changing.\u00a0 What followed was a three-year journey through life challenges and vocal glitches that she describes as her \u201cdark night of the soul\u201d — a trying time of personal anguish and professional uncertainty that threatened to silence her permanently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started about three or four years ago,\u201d said Mattea, during a phone interview Thursday morning from her home in Nashville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sort of crept up on me. I\u2019d be onstage, and I knew what note I wanted. But, it wouldn\u2019t come out. My voice as tight and other times it was flat or strained. It was just inconsistent\u2014flat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to ignore it. I sort of buried my head in the sand. At some point, I realized I was chasing my tail. It\u2019s think that it\u2019s a menopause thing. It shifted my voice. It took awhile for me to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattea was assisted by advice from a voice that was much older.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Tony Bennett in a chance encounter and had a 15-minute conversation,\u201d said Mattea. \u201cI said \u2013 I know how old you are\u2026how do you do it at that age? He told me about his own struggles with his aging voice and that he dealt with them by finding a teacher and re-learning how to sing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I found a teacher to help me re-learn how to sing. I found a woman who works with Bobby McFerrin and we started exploring. The key is learning how to get out of your own way. It\u2019s like being an athlete. It makes sense that it would be the same way for a singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy teacher told me \u2013 you can sing as long as you want\u2026your \u2018sweet spot\u2019 hasn\u2019t diminished, it\u2019s just moving around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattea forged ahead.<\/p>\n

According to Mattea, \u201cThe hardest thing was facing the question of whether I would still be able to sing well enough to enjoy it. That was the acid test for me, and I had to be willing to walk through a process that bumped me up against the very real possibility that, in the end, the answer might be \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Mattea — and her legion of fans \u2013 the answer was \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guitar player Bill Cooley was encouraging,\u201d said Mattea. \u201cWe just went out with the two of us and played some duo shows. I\u2019d tell the audience that there was something going on with my voice. I wasn\u2019t going to quit or give up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had a four-hour rehearsal yesterday and my voice was fine. There is something about music that, when you touch it, it makes it vital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattea was comfortable enough with her voice that she headed into the studio to record her first album in six years \u2013 \u201cPretty Bird.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI recorded \u2018Pretty Bird\u2019 over the course of a year,\u201d said Mattea. \u201cI finished it in the spring. I took my time. I got most of the songs together with Bill (Cooley) and my friend Tim O\u2019Brien agreed to produce it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recorded it at John Prine\u2019s studio \u2013 The Butcher Shop. It\u2019s a great studio with a lot of vintage stuff. Everything was livce in the room. It was so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Kathy Mattea \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/wvNG1wBxQE0<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the Sellersville Theater will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $50.<\/p>\n

Another upcoming show this week at the Sellersville Theater is Carl Palmer\u2019s ELP Legacy on October 17.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gabriel Garz\u00f3n-Montano<\/p><\/div>\n

On October 15, Gabriel Garz\u00f3n-Montano will return to the Philadelphia as the opening act on the \u201cKali Uchis: In Your Dreams Tour\u201d at the Theatre of the Living Arts (334 South Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1011<\/a>, http:\/\/www.lnphilly.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Last year, the New York-based singer released his debut album \u2013 \u201cJard\u00edn.\u201d His previous release was the \u201cBishoun\u00e9: Alma del Huila\u201d EP in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe title of the album \u2013 \u2018Jard\u00edn\u2019 \u2013 means \u2018garden\u2019 in French and in Spanish,\u201d said Garz\u00f3n-Montano, during a phone interview Thursday afternoon from a tour stop in New York City.<\/p>\n

It is a fitting title for a musical work by the son of a French mother and Colombian father. His mother was a member of the Philip Glass ensemble as a mezzo-soprano who played guitar, cello, and piano in the 1990s. She also performed as a mezzo soprano in the choir at the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center throughout his childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother, who passed away a few years ago, was really talented,\u201d said Garz\u00f3n-Montano. \u201cShe was a cellist, a guitarist and a mezzo soprano. She took me to rehearsals and I went on tour with her in Spain and Italy with the Phillip Glass Ensemble.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe basically taught me music. I began violin lessons when I was six. She is the reason I love music. My father, who moved back to Colombia, is an artist and a political cartoonist. He also is a farmer who grows avocados and plantains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garz\u00f3n-Montano also studied guitar and drums and began writing songs as a teenager. Then, he went to college at SUNY-Purchase where he got into a funk band.<\/p>\n

\u201cI formed Mokaad, a funk band, when I was at the university,\u201d said Garz\u00f3n-Montano. \u201cTwo of the players from that band are my touring band now \u2013 Dominic Missana, who plays four-string bass, Moog, glockenspiel, process and tenor sax, and Davy Levitan, who plays guitar and process. I play guitar and a Wurlitzer with a synthesizer. And, all three of us have loops so we can insert overdubs at will.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn this tour, we\u2019re opening for Kali Uchis and also doing some headline shows. We\u2019re still touring on the record \u2013 still touring on \u2018Jard\u00edn.\u2019 Actually, we\u2019re doing songs from the album and the previous EP \u2013 doing a fair shake from both. We\u2019re playing all the songs that have energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, Garz\u00f3n-Montano went to Waterfront Studios in Hudson, NY, to record \u201cJard\u00edn\u201d with his mentor, analog guru Henry Hirsch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made my EP with Henry also,\u201d said Garz\u00f3n-Montano. \u201cWe tracked most of the music direct to two-inch tape. It\u2019s a great studio wit a lot of old equipment \u2013 such as a Helios Console like the kind that Bob Marley used to use. It was pretty much a 1973 setup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been writing songs and have been in the studio a lot since finishing \u2018Jard\u00edn,\u2019\u201d said Garz\u00f3n-Montano. \u201cI\u2019m getting ready to put out a new album at the top of 2019. The new sings are more diverse \u2013 more of a wide range \u2013 things you wouldn\u2019t expect to hear next to each other on the same record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Gabriel Garz\u00f3n-Montano — https:\/\/youtu.be\/l4LFawdddFE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the TLA, which also features Kali Uchis, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $34.50.<\/p>\n

Other upcoming shows at the Theatre of the Living Arts are Atmosphere on October 16 and Masego on October 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times Sometimes, dealing with your body as you grow older is like dealing with an old car. Everything works, but some of the parts just aren\u2019t working as well as they used to work. Just ask Kathy Mattea. Mattea, a country music star who is headlining a show \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7529],"tags":[6518,10692,10691],"class_list":["post-29947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-gabriel-garzon-montano","tag-kathy-mattea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29948,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29947\/revisions\/29948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}