Grammy Award-Winning Artist Kathy Mattea Performs in Brainerd

The Brainerd Lakes Area community had the opportunity to see Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Kathy Mattea perform last week.

With the concert arranged through the Central Lakes College Performing Arts Center, Mattea made Brainerd part of her three-city tour in Minnesota, with other stops in Grand Rapids and Red Wing. This tour precedes her incoming return to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on May 31st for its centennial OPRY 100 celebration.

For more than three decades, Mattea established her voice in American country, folk, and roots music while earning two Grammy awards, four Country Music Association awards, and many chart-topping singles, such as “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” “Goin’ Gone,” and “Where’ve You Been.”

“The music that she does speaks a lot to the heart,” said Central Lakes College Performing Arts Center Director Joey Yow. “I think that it speaks to universal experiences. It speaks to being out in the Heartland kind of area. And with our rural community here, there’s a lot of values that I think that she shares in this music that when they listen to her, they can see themselves in her music. That’s why I felt like this would be a great artist to bring here, because it’s someone I thought would speak to our community.”

The Central Lakes College Performing Arts Center will be presenting the play “The Exonerated” next on May 22nd.