Galaxy Series brings award-winning vocalist to perform at CSC

Grammy Award winning singer and two-time VMA Vocalist of the Year Kathy Mattea and her longtime collaborator Bill Cooley graced the audience with an impressive, and sometimes humorous, performance at the first Galaxy Series event of the semester last week in Memorial Hall.

It’s very obvious that Mattea and Cooley are very talented guitarists that love what they do.

One observer commented on their performance saying, “It was fantastic, inspiring, and sad at the same time. That’s how you know it’s good music.”

Mattea started the show by telling the audience about her travels to the panhandle and how she loved the sunset. She then described with hand gestures how West Virginia, where she’s from, also has a panhandle, and proceeded to flip the audience off, all in good humor of course as everyone thought it was funny.

A genuine storyteller, Mattea kept up the routine of talking to the audience after every song and had everyone laughing and involved in her performance, and worked through technical difficulties with polite humor and grace.

Some of the material performed included songs from Mattea’s album “Calling Me Home” along with compositions from Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens and her partner Bill Cooley.

The next Galaxy Series event is at 7 p.m., Oct. 22 in Memorial Hall, and will welcome Jean-Michel Cousteau to speak about how his agricultural education aided him in his experience as an oceanographer.