An unhappy time brings
courage to Paula Cole

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

She took us through the 1990s with her hits Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? and I Don’t Want to Wait (the theme from TV’s Dawson’s Creek).
By the age of 30, singer-songwriter Paula Cole already had a platinum album, two huge hit singles and a Grammy for best new artist.
And then Cole dropped out of sight, simply choosing to walk away from it all and deal with her personal life, since nothing could have prepared her for a failed marriage and her daughter’s frightening asthma attacks.
"Winning all that I did, including the Grammy, was all good but it didn’t mean enough for me to stay in the business," said Cole, now embarking on her first concert tour in years and plugging her new Decca CD Courage. She’ll be appearing at the Keswick Theatre in Glenside on June 28.
"You know, a Grammy is great, but I don’t want to dwell on it. It was a moment in my life, and a kind of uncomfortable moment at that," she said. "I was kind of unhappy in my personal life and so stressed out from being on that hamster wheel of the music business, estranged from my family and friends because I was on the road so much, that I really didn’t care. Also, I was naïve and never even watched the Grammys, so I was shocked that it was such a big deal and overtook everything in my life."
And so, from the pinnacle to near oblivion, Cole admitted she’s "been through a lot and I needed to become a sort of hermit. I needed to hibernate, and that hibernation turned into seven, eight years for me."
Additionally, she conceded, she was "extremely unhappy with the business part of the music business. I simply needed to put a hold on everything."
Born in 1968 and raised in Rockport, Mass., the singer-songwriter and pianist attended the Berklee College of Music to study jazz, something she said she always wanted to do but didn’t dare admit it in high school.
"But teachers encouraged me and I got a scholarship to Berklee, so I decided to pursue my dream," she explained.
However, things did not go as planned. So Cole quit the business.
But now she’s back, and happy to be. "Maybe because I’m older I’m smarter and am able to say ‘no’ more often. That’s a great feeling," she said. "I’m just hipper and wiser and more savvy about a lot of things, and I know I’m in the business for the right reasons, which is because I love the music."
Of course, the big question on everyone’s mind seems to be "where did you go and what have you been doing all this time?" Cole said.
"In fact, I do talk about it a little bit before I introduce the audience to one of two of my new songs from my new album," she said. "I was still going through a hard time when I made this album. And what I’m really proud of is that I’m not bitter, not angry. The music is tender."
The title is quite appropriate as well, Cole explained.
"The word ‘courage’ is in most of the songs. It’s like a mantra for me to move on to a happier place in my life. I knew that I wanted to be saying this word a lot to remind me of where I was. And so it does help me remember and stay tuned with all that."
Now that Cole’s future is filled with courage, it’s also filled with happiness because she knows things will be different.
"I’m not pursuing big hits, and my management isn’t either. We want me to be working for years, and not to burn out doing frivolous work," she said. "After all, I do have another life — a personal life that brings me more happiness than I can ever explain." ••
Paula Cole performs June 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. Tickets are $38 and $32. For ticket information, call 215-572-7650.