She had a series of top ten and 20 singles on the American country charts, along with having albums certify gold and winning a Grammy Award.

She released a series of albums during the 2000s decade that included styles of Celtic, folk and Appalachian music.

[6] Mattea then found a Jazz vocal coach who helped her explore new ways for her to use her singing voice.

[8] The disc contained a total of 12 tracks which mixed original material with covers of songs by other artists.

[5] Also included is a cover of the traditional folk song, "He Moves Through the Fair", whose theme is centered on murder.

[8] Songwriter (and Mattea's husband), Jon Vezner, contributed two new tracks to the album: "October Song" and "Tell Me What You Ache For".

[5] Pretty Bird was released on September 7, 2018 on Captain Potato Records in conjunction with the Thirty Tigers label.

Bobby Moore of Wide Open Country commented that the disc is the "studio equivalent of a Nashville cafe's resident singer-songwriter adding less-obvious covers to her expected set.