Pandemic break made Suzy Bogguss, Kathy Mattea tour reality. Now it’s coming to Kentucky

Over the past three decades, Suzy Bogguss and Kathy Mattea have spent holidays together, taken ski trips together and, in one of their first get-togethers accompanied by their respective spouses, adopted characters and appropriate costuming for an Old West-theme dinner party together.

“Just the fact they were just as goofy as us and would do something like that,” Bogguss said, referencing the latter, “struck up an instant friendship.”

One activity these veteran country/Americana music stylists had not undertaken was touring together. Granted, their separate careers kept them more than occupied through the years. Mattea began a string of popular country singles in the mid-1980s with Bogguss’ hit parade kicking in as the ’90s commenced. All along, their friendship grew. But it took a pandemic for the two to plot a concert run together to share songs, stories and a few laughs.

“It’s just always been off for Kathy and I to plan ahead enough to where we could make something like this happen. It ended up being kind of serendipitous that we took some time off – a forced vacation, I guess you could say – when COVID hit. Since we were in lockdown, it gave us time to look ahead.”

Even as the pandemic began to let up, logistics surrounding a joint Mattea/Bogguss tour – a program consisting of only the two artists, two guitars and nothing more – became tricky. Beginning in 2021, Mattea took over duties as full-time host of the popular live music public radio program Mountain Stage (she had served as a fill-in host for show co-founder Larry Groce in preceding years). A limited number of duo concerts finally surfaced in 2022 with another run underway this month that brings the two to the Norton Center for the Arts in Danville on March 10.

“When we decided we were going to do this, Kathy and I got together and began going through our catalogs figuring out what songs could be pulled off with just a duo. I think we shared a similar vision of what this show would look like onstage. It’s very loose, but we still manage to learn something about each other at every show just through stories we share of things that have happened on the road or from our backgrounds. There is a lot of rolling with whatever happens each night.”

Stylistic similarities are shared, as well. Both artists have charted prominently with songs penned by artists not exclusively rooted in conventional country – meaning music reflecting strong folk and Americana accents that reaches beyond Nashville. That perhaps explains why each have had hits with compositions penned by the late Texas songsmith Nanci Griffith – Mattea with “Love at the Five and Dime” and Bogguss with “Outbound Plane.” Fittingly, they perform both songs in their duo show as a tribute. Griffith died in August 2021.

“When Kathy and I first started these shows, Nanci was still alive. After she passed away, it was really hard not to get emotional when we do those songs. But as healing goes for loss like that, it’s turned into such a sweet moment in the show. Both of us are in awe of how Nanci held her own with those male Texas songwriters out there. For a person who would speak very quietly and mildly, she could make some very emphatic points at times.”

Bogguss’ version of “Outbound Plane” was released in 1991, the second single from one of her most popular albums, “Aces.” The ’90s were a period of tremendous change for country music with currents retreating from a traditionalist renaissance that sprouted a decade earlier to a newer pop/roots hybrid sound that boasted an enormously bankable ambassador - Garth Brooks. As the decade served as Bogguss’ commercial heyday, it was a period of great excitement and discovery for the singer.

“I often think to myself of how lucky I was to be there at that time. There were still a lot of our mentors around. We got to be friends with Waylon (Jennings). I got to know Faron Young. Chet Atkins was a very good friend. My husband got to work with (famed Nashville producer) Owen Bradley. We were lucky enough to be there when so many of the people who really created the Nashville sound were still around and, in some cases, still working. “But the doors of country radio were also open to folks like Garth. I think a lot about all the great female artists from that period. We had a lot in common as far as mentors, but we also had a lot of differences. Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis, for example, came from a different experience than myself or Mary Chapin Carpenter. Or Kathy. Or Patty Loveless.

“We all had different influences that we brought with us, influences we were allowed to combine with a reverence of music that was more traditional. We just updated it in a way that was way comfortable for us.”

While the newest leg of her tour with Mattea allows Bogguss to explore those influences with one of her best professional and personal friends, it also comes at a tumultuous time for the singer. Earlier this winter, Bogguss’ mother died at the age of 100. Then as the tour reconvened, her husband/manager Doug Crider suffered a compound fracture of his leg.

“It’s been a little kooky, but Kathy has been such a good pal to keep me lifted up and Doug has been doing well with the doctors. There is a tinge of grief for my mom, but we were ready and she was ready. I miss her, though.

“Even though there is a little bit of healing to do at this house, for the most part, we’re set pretty good. We think about the people who still want to listen to the music and come out to the shows. We think about the good friends we have. Really, I’m pretty blessed.”

Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss

When: 7:30 p.m. March 10

Where: Norton Center for the Arts, 600 W. Walnut St. in Danville.

Tickets: $32-$75 through etix.com.