CHARLESTON -- Kathy Mattea got the the ride of her life Tuesday in a homecoming tour.

The trip featured a whirlwind flight through the southern coal fields. The visit was captured on videotape as part of a documentary for the Sierra Club.

Mattea was also flown over the Kayford Mountain in Kanawha County. The sight of this surface mine, coupled with the information shared in the plane, left the country music songstress with the blues.

Tears streamed down Mattea's face as she stared out the window, transfixed on the scarred landscape below.

"I don't have words right now. I just wanna go and think," Mattea said as she choked back emotions after her flight landed in Charleston.

About an hour and a half later, Mattea regained her composure and took part in a walking tour of Kayford Mountain. The Cross Lanes native spent a couple of hours listening to the people who've been fighting surface mining for decades. People like Larry Gibson are happy to have Mattea take an interest in their cause.

"For somebody of such stature to come in here and recognize that we have a problem and walk beside her and talk with her too just like I'm doin' you, i'ts a powerful, powerful feeling," Gibson said.

Mattea's surface mining tour ended with a news conference at the State Capitol.

The award-winning country music star did not point fingers at the coal industry.

"Right now, at my house in Tennessee, my air conditioner is running and probably burning coal from one of the mountain top removal sites we saw today," Mattea said.

Bill Raney, president of West Virginia's Coal Association, did not attend the news conference, but did say he would like to take Mattea and her group inside a working mine.

"f Kathy would like to come and see a mine, we'd love to take her on a tour to meet and talk with the miners; see what happens on an active mine site."

Mattea told the small crowd at the Capitol that she's open to Raney's invitation.

"I'd love to go into a mine. Both my grandfathers were miners," Mattea said.

Photo Credit: Martin Staunton