Grammy winner and environmental activist, Kathy Mattea, known for such classic hits as "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses," has dreamed quietly about one day recording an album like COAL. Raised near Charleston, West Virginia, her childhood was steeped in the Appalachian culture and her mining heritage is thick: both her parents grew up in coal camps, her grandfathers were miners and her mother worked for the local UMWA. But the songs on COAL are more than just mining songs. Mattea says she wanted to pay tribute to her place and people.