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The Grammy-winning singer Kathy Mattea has long steered a sure-footed, soulful course between country and folk influences, ever since her breakthrough hit in 1986 with a cover of Nanci Griffith’s Love at the Five And Dime.

Her latest album, 2008’s Grammy nominated, hauntingly stripped-back Coal, represents both a personal and an artistic return to her roots, paying tribute to the hardscrabble history and culture of US mining communities, like the one where she grew up in West Virginia, in material by such leading songsmiths as Jean Ritchie, Billy Edd Wheeler, Hazel Dickens, Si Kahn, Utah Phillips, Merle Travis, and Darrell Scott.

In the words of Irvine Welsh, who supplied the sleevenotes for Dean Owens’ recently re-released Whisky Hearts, its songs “resonate with the beauty and power that only a truly committed writer and performer can bring.” Drawing on a rich swathe of Americana, folk and vintage rock influences, Owens blends them with a subtly distilled intensity all of his own.

Tickets:  £16