A Cinderella Story Backwards

Paula Cole lived the Cinderella story, she says, but got it backward.
 
Trained in jazz at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, the now 41-year-old singer-songwriter was whisked away by Peter Gabriel for a 1993-1994 international tour as a background vocalist. Subsequent coffee house touring and a dogged compositional determination landed Cole, her feathery light vocals and substantive lyrics in tow, at the top of the Billboard heap in the late 90’s with radio staples, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” and “I Don’t Want to Wait.”

But then, as Cole described to McKinneyNews.net in a telephone interview from her hometown in Rockport, Massachusetts, a convergence of spiritual emptiness, an ensuing recording “flop,” a child and subsequent divorce descended upon her leaving her piano silent for more than eight years.

In 2007, Cole released her fourth album, the aptly titled, Courage (listen to the tracks here). With heavy MTV rotation a distant memory, Cole has settled into the notion that lightning seldom strikes twice, that a second meteoric ascension to the top of the charts is unlikely. But that’s okay, she says. It’s not so much fame and glory she’s looking for the second time around; it’s a “respectable,” long-lived career.

MNN: How would you describe or classify your music.

Cole: That is so funny. I just did an interview and was asked the same question. And I’m wondering, ‘Why do people want to know that, because I struggle with that question’ (laughs). My music is really a big ol’ stirred up pot of influences and it’s hard to categorized and I kind of refuse to categorize it. I love John Lennon, I love Dolly Parton and I love Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley and Miles Davis. I grew up listening to folk music. My dad played bass in a polka band and then I went off to Berklee College of Music and studied jazz. I’m a melting pot and I guess I’ll always be. I’m just intrigued by great music whatever the category.

MNN: Your work is thoughtful and introspective. Is there any room on the airwaves for cerebral artistry these days?

Cole: (Laughs). Probably I’m not going to be on MTV anymore and that’s okay with me. I think the landscape of the music business is changing so fast. I feel lucky to be still standing quite honestly – especially after the near death experience of an eight-year hiatus. It’s hard to survive. I find it miraculous that I’m here. I’ve got a great label (Decca) behind me and they’re an adult niche label. If Apple has monopolized the music delivery system, then perhaps it has caused these niches. I’m glad in that I can be cerebral and sensitive and honest and that there’s a market for me.

MNN: Who is your market?

Cole: I find out when I go on tour and I see my people and they’re everybody. I get men and women who have been through divorce and are connecting because of that. I get therapists who have used my music with their teenage clients. Every once in a while parents bring their kids. It’s eclectic. Music is a unifier; it unifies people from different walks of life.

MNN: You had two mega hits back in the late 1990s (“Where Have All The Cowboys Gone,” “I Don’t Want To Wait”) and then you disappeared. What happened?

Cole: Well, it’s my story and I talk a little bit about it live and on my website. I was on a seven- year crusade touring. It started when I was touring with Peter Gabriel as his background singer (1993) and then I came back to America and starting singing in coffee shops and then started opening for other artists like the Counting Crows and Sarah McLachlan and I made albums and had a couple of hits and then I started feeling kind of lonely and empty. Maybe it was cellular, but I wanted a child. I wanted more meaning in my life. I wanted to be able to come to a home and come to someone in that home. Suddenly peddling on that hamster wheel of a career felt very specialized and empty after a while. Amen (1999) did poorly, it was a flop. But perhaps that was meant to be. It all sort of happened backward, it didn’t all happen like the big Cinderella fantasy (laughs). I got pregnant. I felt all this pressure to marry the guy and he was so not the right person. The divorce took three years. It was hard. Also, my daughter had some health problems so I couldn’t tour. I was extremely grateful that my songs were still being played on the radio. That was my bread and butter while I took care of my daughter and my life. I literally couldn’t work until recently.

MNN: Let’s talk about “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone,” one of your best-known pieces.

Cole: I think the song is a little bit sensationalist, it captured people’s attention. There’s the Cinderella fantasy woven into it. There’s dreams and then there’s disappointment. It’s all blended in our longings. That song kind of sprung out of me, that phrase just sprung out of me and it was just magic. I partly don’t feel responsible, I feel like a channel (laughs).

MNN: The song brings to mind the word ‘scathing.’ It turns quite bitter and sarcastic at the end.

Cole: Yeah, the ‘I will wash the dishes, while you go have a beer.’ But see, there is the disappointment and the anger, but there is also a plaintiff quality about the song. It’s about having dreams. And I find it interesting because some people only interpret it as a longing for a Marlboro Man and then some people only interpret it as irony. I think it’s a blend. Life is a blend.

MNN: In the song you reference sort of a conservative/traditional utopia, a place where you take care of the domestic duties while your ‘John Wayne’ pays the bills. Is this your personal vision of the good life?

Cole: (Laughs). No. I don’t think I’d be capable of that life because I love what I do. I’d never be happy staying at home. But I’m not here to espouse politics or anything because I love the difference. We’re all different. I heard recently that Rush Limbaugh loves the song, [that he takes the song literally as a celebration of traditional gender roles] and that’s fine.

MNN: Do you anticipate another radio hit? Will you be able to survive without another hit?

Cole: If I wish for something, it’s that I might have a respectable career. I see myself as a lasting artist. I’ve dedicated my life to music. It’s what I am. I understand that I’m 41, that I fall into a more intellectual niche. I’m looking for people who are searchers, who care passionately about the music.

Cole, 1997 Grammy winner for Best New Artist, will be in town Sunday evening performing a piano-based collection of songs at the McKinney Performing Arts Center. For ticket information, click here.