Grammy award winning artist, singer, and songwriter Paula Cole is coming to Louisville September 19th for an intimate concert at the new venue Mallard Hall. She was previously scheduled to play WFPK's Waterfront Wednesday in June of this year but had to reschedule for April in 2025. I had wanted to ask about her new album Lo, her eleventh studio album and first of original songs in nearly a decade. I was able to communicate with her via email and took the opportunity to ask a few questions about the new album.
Your new album LO is a deeply personal album described as a series of autobiographies. What inspired this time of reflection in your songwriting?
I had time off from the road. My mom had health struggles. That time allowed me to process a lot of life and connect with my mother. My songwriting has always been a therapeutic, healing place for me. Also, I started therapy again. A lot of realizations came out in the music.
"The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr." is about your friend and collaborator Mark Hutchins who passed away in 2016. Can you tell us more about who he was and especially who he was to you?
Mark was my partner in all ways. This was the early 90s. We moved to San Francisco together, when it was rough around the edges then, pre-dot com. He was a brilliant producer. I don’t think he had the career he deserved. He was zany, irreverent, funny, with a heart of gold. Mark produced those early demos of mine, which got me signed to a record deal. He also grew my thinking about music and production. He exposed me to so much music. I had lived a sheltered life in a small town making music mostly with my family. So he really exploded my brain. I don’t think I properly acknowledged his contribution to my career when he was alive. I wish I had. I needed to write something for him. I hope he is in peace and that his family is doing well. I stay in touch with his mom and dad still.
"Letter From A Quarry Miner" recalls the Great Depression of 1932. On the surface it's someone else's story. How did this song come about and how do you relate to it?
I grew up in Rockport, Massachusetts, the tip of the island of Cape Ann off the north shore of Massachusetts. It was remote, especially in the 1970s. We would walk the gorgeous natural beauty, the beaches, the woods. There are stunningly beautiful quarries around Cape Ann, which was known for its incredibly dense granite, and was a major exporter of granite until the depression hit. Rockport and Gloucester were destined to be a much larger port, but when the great depression hit, everything stopped, and the quarry miners were out of work. For temporary employment, they carved boulders throughout Dogtown, a wooded area of Rockport and Gloucester, with hopeful sayings, like “courage”, or “hard work.” I would walk the woods and see these boulders, an echo of an era. It made me think about the stories of the men who lived on the land before me. What they had gone through. Many of them were Scandinavian men. So I am channeling spirits from the land of my hometown.
What's your fondest wish for this new album and what listeners might take away from it?
I want listeners to see the whole of me. I want them to hear my voice, my stories, and the content of my catalog. I will never stop being an artist. I am mostly an autobiographical writer, and I leave behind my life-snapshots in songs.
Paula Cole performs at Mallard Hall on September 19th. All details provided in the link. Check out her video for the song "Green Eyes Crying" from the new album Lo.
