Paula Cole
with Mark Erelli

“7 is a collection of songs that came suddenly and urgently. The songs demanded to be written and released, as if my subconscious needed to reach out to me; to tell me all I was going through. I recorded this album live, as an acoustic quartet. It sounds like a soft, soulful album made in the 1960’s and the songs speak for themselves.” Featuring Cole’s original band members/musical soul mates Jay Bellerose and Kevin Barry, with upright bassist Dennis Crouch complementing the bottom-end, “’7’ is about the songs. I’m very proud of it. These are entirely live performances, no overdubs by the band. The only overdubs are my background vocals, and my requisite Alfred Hitchcock appearance, my clarinet”, laughs Cole. “Very intimate.” The songs of “7” reveal Cole reflecting on her life: “The cycle of 7 years is powerful to me. I believe I’ve finished another ‘life era’ of 7 years, and I’m beginning a new one. Intuitively I feel I’m not going to be doing the same thing now. I’m moving into a different time of my life, standing on a mountaintop with some wisdom; looking down at my life as a whole. There are songs here that were crystalized by my past - but there are songs that reflect my future - a glimpse that I’m headed on an unknown road to my unknown fate. All my albums, all my songs are Polaroid snapshots of my life, as intuitively I’m an autobiographical writer. This album represents a bridge to my next chapter, as I finish a cycle of 7 years back on the road, still dedicated to this crazy music business. I feel there are good things ahead even though it has been challenging. My career changed when I had my daughter. I entered the realm where too few of us working musicians go; motherhood. I sing concerts on the weekends, I go home to be Mom. There’s a dearth of women role models for me in my career; too-few who’ve had children, the long, successful marriage and the long, successful career. I’m arriving at new perspective nearly 25 years as a singer-songwriter, and I sense society is keen to hear the rare voice of the wise-mother-art rocker. I feel a bit like Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha” coming back to the river of realization after having lived as an ascetic, as a lover - I see all the things I’ve lived combined together in my songs. I’m facing a new cycle of the next 7 years: I don’t know what this means yet, of course…but when I do I will write about it.”