Kathy Mattea: Getting to What’s Real

At 37, country singer Kathy Mattea may be a tad young to have gone through that dreaded phenomenon called “midlife crisis.”

Yet maybe not.

The inner turmoil was certainly there.

Mattea, in many ways, resembles the successful professional who has a high-paying career, impressive home and new-model Lexus parked in the garage. Not a corporate CEO or huge star like Dolly or Wynona, but since being named Billboard’s best new country artist in 1984, she has had several gold albums, a string of hit songs, won two Grammys and twice been named female vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music.

Yet despite her accolades and material rewards, Mattea, who performs tonight and Saturday at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, recently struggled through a musical identity crisis.

This period of introspection and self-doubt emerged after her last release in 1994, “Walking Away a Winner.” After 10 years of being on the Nashville fast track, she began to examine her priorities and the value placed by both herself and the industry on record sales.

“When I started working on ‘Love Travels’ [her forthcoming album due next month], I just didn’t feel like I was on the right track,” said Mattea recently by phone from her home in Nashville. “On my last album, I made a concerted effort to make a commercial record, and at the end of the day, I did feel great about that record. But it wound up selling the same [amount] as my other records. . . .

“As I went into this new record, I started it the same way as I did my last one. But I got this feeling down in my gut that just wasn’t right. I was out on the road, and I didn’t want to get up in the morning. I realized, ‘You listen to the radio and try to make something that sounds like that and then go on the road?’

“I thought to myself, ‘If that’s what it’s all about, I don’t think I want to do that anymore.’ ”

Several months after making her “Walking Away a Winner” album, while she was on tour performing those songs, she began to emerge from her difficulties. She, her band and road crew began studying Julia Cameron’s 12-step workbook, “The Artist’s Way.” She says its overriding theme--the creative self and spiritual self are one and the same--made sense to her at a time when everything else in her life was a question mark.

Rejuvenated, she was ready to step back into the batter’s box. Still, Mattea--who relies heavily on outside material--knew she had to look beyond the limited, formulaic approach that defines much of Nashville’s current crop of songwriters.

“I decided to make an LP I felt emotionally connected to, that moves me. . . . I was really looking for songs that echoed experiences in my own life,” recalled Mattea. “I had to make the most honest record I could and hope that everything else will take care of itself.”

The well-intentioned but inconsistent “Love Travels” isn’t quite the artistic breakthrough envisioned by Mattea, but it is a step in the right direction. There are subtle signs of growth both in her choice of wider-ranging material and her more emotional delivery of it.

Particularly strong are her impassioned readings of Lionel Cartwright’s defiant ballad “If That’s What You Call Love,” new traditionalist Gillian Welch’s tender “Patiently Waiting” and Jim Lauderdale’s lighthearted yet heartfelt “I’m on Your Side.”

The one new song that renewed Mattea’s creative drive, though, came from a rather unexpected source in an unlikely setting.

“I was in this bar one night, and this guy from New York comes up to me and hands me this tape,” Mattea remembered. “I took it home and listened to it the next day. I loved this song on it so much that I called him up and said, ‘Who are you, and why haven’t I heard of you?’ It really got me going again.”

Oddly enough, that guy turned out to be Bob Halligan Jr., a former co-writer of heavy-metal tunes for Judas Priest, and his uplifting song became the title track for “Love Travels.” (Halligan’s wife, Linda, also received credit for co-writing the song.)

A rejuvenated Mattea is now on the road performing concerts, including tonight’s and Saturday night’s “Songs of the Season” in Cerritos. She says the concerts will feature two sets, the first a combination of her greatest hits, plus a few songs from the forthcoming “Love Travels”; and the second devoted to her 1993, nativity-themed “Good News” CD, plus a couple of reworked traditional holiday tunes.

“I try to make my shows a musical journey where I take my fans through a range of emotions, including both laughter and tears,” said Mattea. “I like to challenge the audience a bit and give them a sense of who I am as a person.”

She talks enthusiastically about touring next year in support of “Love Travels,” and although now more comfortable in her own skin than ever before, the country singer from West Virginia knows success in this business can be fleeting.

Long considered by critics to have the potential to someday reach heights occupied by Emmylou Harris and Patsy Cline, Mattea longs to leave a lasting artistic mark of her own.

“I feel like I’ve really grown as an artist, that I’m holding back less and less,” said Mattea, whose listening pleasure ranges from traditional and modern country to a handful of today’s pop rockers, including Michael McDonald, Sheryl Crow and Blessid Union of Souls.

“When you win CMA or Grammy awards, it’s real validating, and it’s something that no one can ever take away from you,” Mattea said. “But at the same time, no one wants to be the answer to a trivia question. I remember even as the awards [shows] were happening, I was aware of how transient it all is. I mean, I don’t remember who the best female vocalist of 1979 was--do you?”

* Kathy Mattea performs “Songs of the Season” tonight and Saturday night at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts 12700 Center Court Drive, Cerritos. 8 p.m. $27-40. (800) 300-4345.