Paula Cole 'Courage' album

Grammy-Award winning, singer/songwriter Paula Cole rediscovers her love of music with her new CD, Courage. Her first album in eight years, Courage marks both Cole’s long-awaited return to the spotlight, as well as her new label deal with Decca/Universal. The highly anticipated disc will be released on June 12th, followed by U.S. concert dates to be announced soon. When asked what Courage means to Paula Cole, she says the word was her daily mantra when recording the record, making for a fitting title. Simply put Cole says, “I am searching for the truth. Somewhere, it's in the music.”

An intimate and heartfelt collection of songs, Courage is poised to re-establish Cole’s seminal role among the top female recording artists today. Delivered with raw emotional honesty, the singer reveals a rare, disarming vulnerability with these eleven new songs. Her arresting vocals and top-notch songwriting also shine, with highlights including “Comin’ Down,” the striking opening track (co-penned with guitarist Dean Parks), “14,” the memorable anthem co-written with Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Roger Waters), and the confessional “El Greco” (co-penned with Mark Goldenberg). Produced by Bobby Colomby (the original drummer and co-founder of Blood, Sweat & Tears), the album also features guest appearances from the legendary Herbie Hancock on the haunting track, “Lonelytown,” renowned producer David Foster, who guests as pianist on “In Our Dreams,” the distinctive vocals of Paul Buchanan of Blue Nile fame on, “Until I Met You,” and the Brazilian singer/songwriter Ivan Lins on the samba-laced, “Hard To Be Soft.”

From today's perspective, Paula Cole has crafted her finest album to date. Most remember her meteoric rise with the 1997 breakthrough album This Fire. The record yielded the hits "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait" (which was used as the theme song to the massive WB show Dawson's Creek). Following her Grammy win for Best New Artist and her third, soul-influenced album Amen, Cole made a conscious decision to break away from the music industry. Her seven-year hiatus left many fans clamoring for new material from an artist who was an MTV and radio staple, and a founding member of the pioneering Lilith Fair tour. During her “absence,” Paula made guest appearances on the Chris Botti albums When I Fall In Love and To Love Again (both were certified gold by the RIAA). She was also thrilled to receive a call from two of her idols -- Herbie Hancock and Annie Lennox – about their rendition of her original song “Hush, Hush,” which they recorded together for Hancock’s acclaimed record, Possibilities.

Courage, and the artist behind it, can both perhaps be best described as tender, tougher, older and wiser. Cole steers her way through the manifold experiences of an adult American woman who has seen much, lost much and gained much. Her recent homecoming concert in February at the Berklee School of Music in Boston was a triumph, with The Boston Globe raving, “Returning to the limelight, Cole is as striking as ever,” while the Boston Herald called it “a stunning return.” Cole also made two appearances at this year’s South By Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas – with both her own successful showcase, as well as a tribute to the great Emmylou Harris.

Biography
BY PAUL BUCHANAN

I am standing halfway back in the empty stalls when Paula starts singing at the sound-check. Burt Bacharach is playing piano, and I am a kid, watching his favorite baseball team practice. Everything else around me disappears, like the whole world is silent, except for this one event. The crew and production people all stand still, or sink into empty seats and watch. And this incredible sound takes shape in the air, as inescapable as the sirens' song… and then turns and flies straight at me, and pierces my chest. I turn to Bobby (her producer), who is smiling, and doesn't even have to say “told you.” I am utterly moved, crying soft, involuntary tears… gentle like the ones I used to cry; not angry anymore, or righteous or sophisticated or defensive. Just tears, from when you used to still like yourself well enough.

I have been summoned six thousand miles to sing here, because I sing too. But not like this. I know music is the speech of the angels. I know all about that. Being a singer is like being a spy: never refer directly to exactly what you are trying to achieve. I know how to shape the air, how to be in the moment... how to give voice to what cannot simply be said. But I am from the outskirts of the source. I am a workman, and proud of being that. This is the voice that the angels listen to and weep. It is as pure as the air it lives in. It is a quantum leap; where there is no difference between technique and emotional content. This is the one we have been looking for. This is the one we need. I don't think I have ever heard a purer sound. It is the purest water from the mountains… when you've lived for years on dust and cynicism.

When I meet Paula, I am like a kid with a sports star, bumbling and uncertain. Even she seems a little embarrassed about having unfurled her flag so unreservedly in public after all this time: I'm told she hasn't been
singing in public for a while.

She never really explains that; she tells me of circumstances, of times, of her need for her darling child. But what I think is: How did you ever manage to stay out there for that long before you stopped to rest? A stage had ended for her back then. She went into hiatus, abeyance, to prepare for this second stage... which seems to be beginning about now, and she is giddy and afraid at the same time in emerging from her privacy.

At home, - to continue the sporting analogies- we say of sportsman and Women..."form is temporary, class is permanent." The second half of that applies here. After that first time, I watched and listened to her singing every chance I got. Each time was like watching a high wire artist stepping among the clouds... I held my breath, to listen more, not to miss a morsel. Paula is not a good singer; she is a great singer. She is timeless, a classic, a great American soul. She will make you believe in us all again.

There is too much noise in the world; tune it out, turn the dials until it disappears and concentrate only on this. Tell me you don't feel it too. Paula Cole's fourth album, Courage, is about starting over.

Born the daughter of musicians in Rockport, Massachusetts, Cole grew up singing for fun; American songbooks, traditional folksongs, Christmas carols, a capella harmonies. While finding kindred spirits in records, she became a fixture in her school musicals, which catapulted her toward a scholarship for the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied jazz singing and improvisation.

"I wanted to get inside the chord structure of songs, so that I could improvise inside the changes, " she says. "but it wasn't meant to be..."

"I began writing my own songs, and it took me down another path." While a senior at Berklee, she was offered a deal with a jazz label, but declined. "It came too easily, and I didn't want to be limited just to jazz. Something wasn't quite right. So I continued singing weddings and waitressing as I tried to find my inner songs."

In 1993, Peter Gabriel asked her to join his Secret World Tour, after hearing Cole's Imago debut, "Harbinger." Throughout 1994-6, Cole toured America extensively, building a foundation of support that then embraced her 1997 album "This Fire." It became a breakthrough smash yielding the hits, "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait" (which was used as the theme song to the hit WB show Dawson's Creek), and the 1997 Grammy win for Best New Artist. In 1999, she released her third, spiritually soul-influenced album "Amen."

From today's perspective, she has created her finest album: tender, tough, older, wiser… Cole steers her way through the manifold experiences of an adult American woman who has seen much, lost much, gained much, and yet has regained her innocence. It feels like the work of a woman who is in the right place at the right time. Getting to that simple place, as we all know, takes Courage every day.

This song of life is the work of someone back from the prairie. Even more certain that life is hard-won but good, and that from experience should come grace.

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Tracklisting

Paula Cole - Courage