OGUNQUIT — American country music and bluegrass performer Kathy Mattea will perform at Jonathan’s Ogunquit on Friday, Aug. 3.

Mattea, who often brings Celtic and traditional folk to her country music, has recorded more than 17 albums and has charted more than 30 singles on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks.

Her third album, 1986’s folksy “Walk the Way the Wind Blows,” proved to be her breakthrough, both critically and commercially. Her cover of Nanci Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime” was her first major hit, reaching No. 3; and the album produced three other Top 10 songs: “Walk the Way the Wind Blows,” “You’re the Power” and “Train of Memories.”

Other hit songs include her first No. 1, “Goin’ Gone,” the truck-driving song “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses,” “Come From the Heart,” “Burnin’ Old Memories,” “She Came From Fort Worth,” “Lonesome Standard Time,” “Walking Away a Winner,” “Nobody’s Gonna Rain on Our Parade,” “Maybe She’s Human” and “455 Rocket.”

The heartrending “Where’ve You Been,” which Mattea’s husband, Jon Vezner, co-wrote with singer-songwriter Don Henry, reached No. 10 on the country chart and won her a 1990 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal.

Mattea, a repeat winner of the County Music Associations Female Vocalist of the Year, won another Grammy in 1993 for her gospel-oriented Christmas album, “Good News.” 

In 1994, she collaborated with Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to contribute “Teach Your Children” to the AIDS benefit album, 
“Red Hot + Country,” produced by the Red Hot Organization. Also on that album, Mattea teamed up with Jackson Browne to contribute “Rock Me on the Water.”

With her social activism and her taste for songs with introspective lyrics, it has often been said that Mattea owes as much to the traditions of folk music as mainstream country.

Her 2008 release, “Coal,” combined her social activism with songs about coal-mining. It debuted at No. 64 on the country albums chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Traditional Folk category.

Mattea is scheduled to release a daring new CD, “Calling Me Home” on Sept. 11. Her new direction couldn’t have taken her further from her old way of doing things, according to her website. “Where once she was pitched songs by Music Row writers, now she collects the generations — old and new but old-in-soul tunes that move her at folk gatherings, and rounds out her repertoire through extensive research. Two songs here came from a CD that Alice Gerrard of the influential 1970s folk duo “Hazel & Alice” personally pressed into her hand at one such festival.”

“I have been wanting to get Kathy here for years. It was a perfect fit to get her here this summer, right after Suzy Bogguss (July 20), before John Gorka (Aug. 5), she fit right into our summer lineup,” Jonathan’s Ogunquit owner Jonathan West said.

Tickets are on sale now at tickets.jonathansrestaurant.com or by calling 800-464-9934. Advance tickets start at $55/$60 day of show. Jonathan’s Ogunquit is at 92 Bourne Lane.