Kathy Mattea performs inside Biltmore House

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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This sounds cool — Kathy Mattea performed inside the Biltmore House. Would have loved to have known about this. 

From NPR:

Grammy Award-winning singer Kathy Mattea and her band perform on a temporary stage set up in the Biltmore Banquet Hall beneath a 70-foot ceiling, surrounded by ancient tapestries and suits of armor, in front of a triple fireplace 30 feet across. With them, the choir VOX and the Celtic group The Beggar Boys perform new arrangements of songs from her two Christmas CDs, Good News and Joy for Christmas Day. There are also traditional carols and up-tempo gospel tunes on the program, with guest singers Abigail Haynes Lennox and Catrina Pegues.

The show was recorded in front of a live audience with Jennifer Foster, midday host at Classical Public Radio 89.9 WDAV in Davidson, N.C., as emcee. Mattea says she’s usually touring leading up to Christmas, and that the number of seasonal songs she performs each year has been gradually growing, with many of the well-known carols she’s recorded arranged by her guitarist, Bill Cooley.

A Carolina Christmas from Biltmore Estate, with Kathy Mattea mixes familiar Christmas carols like “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “I Saw Three Ships” with more recent holiday songs such as “Mary Did You Know?,” “Good News,” “Unto Us a Child Is Born” and “Straw Against the Chill.” VOX conductor David Tang has provided new choral arrangements, accompanied by the fiddles, cello, guitar and pennywhistles of The Beggar Boys.