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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 20 January 2018
Paula Cole, a best new artist
Grammy winner, looks back
In this Jan. 3, 2018 photo, Paula Cole poses for a portrait in By MARK KENNEDY in 1998 as a Lilith Fair vet- teacher, offering classes
New York to promote her album “Ballads,” a collection of 20 AP Entertainment Writer eran with seven nomi- that quickly oversub-
jazz covers. NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty nations from her second scribe.
years ago, Paula Cole album, "This Fire," which Anne Peckham, who
Associated Press heard her name called, contained the hit "I Don't chairs the voice depart-
went up to the stage and Want to Wait," which be- ment, calls Cole a be-
took home the Grammy came the theme song for loved teacher who is
Award for best new artist. "Dawson's Creek." known for her generosity.
It was an amazing Her "Where Have All the Cole even offers her most
achievement on a night Cowboys Gone?" — a talented students the
that turned out to be wry, ironic study of gender chance to open for her
quite complicated. stereotypes — had been when she performs.
The then-30-year-old met incorrectly seen by some "She has a quality about
her idol, Aretha Franklin, as nostalgic and anti-fem- her that really draws
and sang her hit "Where inist. people close to her and
Have All the Cowboys Her flipping the bird on- helps students learn more
Gone?" in front of millions. stage was a sign that she about themselves," Peck-
But she also felt misunder- was firmly in satire mode ham says.
stood and uncomfortable but it also underlined her "Can you imagine as a
in the spotlight. discomfort that night. student having a Grammy
Cole shocked some peo- "I was a very dark horse winner offer to help you in
ple by raising her middle — self-produced, defi- your career by opening
finger and beatboxing nitely very progressive up for them?"
during her performance, and left," says Cole, who Cole says she learns from
and triggered jokes for took home best new artist her students as much as
daring to bare armpit hair. honors, beating boy band they learn from her. She
All these years later, that Hanson, singers Fiona Ap- feels a responsibility to
Grammy isn't her favorite ple and Erykah Badu, and expose them to the pio-
accomplishment. rapper Diddy. neers.
That would be her daugh- In the aftermath, Cole "Nourish yourself," she says.
ter, Sky, now 16. faced a backlash and "Go back and listen to the
And her fans, who have her manager complained masters and honor the
stayed loyal, funding her that sales of her music masters and be part of
last two albums via Kick- plummeted. Jay Leno the legacy."
starter. made a Paula Cole doll One of those masters is
Her story is a cautionary with rotating armpits to Bobbie Gentry, one of the
one for anyone thinking shine his shoes with. first female country art-
that winning one of mu- "There was a lot of hate ists to compose and pro-
sic's most coveted awards coming down on me af- duce her own material.
solves everything. ter," she says. She covers Gentry's "Ode
"That night was laden and "All of that attention was to Billie Joe" on her new
confused and amazing," ill-fitting for this introvert. album.
says Cole, who turns 50 in And I ebbed away after Cole remembers hearing
April. the Grammys." Gentry when she played
"My career on the other Cole took eight years off her parents' albums as a
side of that has been defi- to raise her daughter, kid, and the more that the
nitely different — smaller, who was born with severe adult Cole dug into Gen-
humbler, a more au- asthma. try's past, the more she
thentic career. A more Cole re-emerged to a found parallels.
authentic second adult- changed musical land- Like Cole, Gentry also won
hood, if you will." scape, but with her deter- the best new artist Gram-
The Berklee College of mination to remain inde- my and self-produced.
Music-trained Cole is now pendent intact. Like Cole, Gentry wasn't a
touring to promote her al- She looks back and realiz- fan of the spotlight.
bum "Ballads," a collection es she probably never re- "I found out she won best
of 20 jazz covers primar- ally belonged on the Top new artist and that she
ily from the 1930s-1960s. 40 charts. also did not like the at-
It honors her dad, a bass "That trajectory that I was tention and found herself
player in a polka band, on needed to be stopped. in the patriarchal playing
and it also allowed her to This is who I'm meant to fields and withdrew as an
go back to her roots. be now. I needed to stop introvert. And I relate to all
"I intended to be a jazz and I needed a reset," she of that."
singer. That's where I start- says. She hopes to meet Gentry
ed and my first gigs were "I needed to take a hia- one day.
in jazz clubs," she says. "I tus — kind of shed that ill- "I'd love to just give her a
got rerouted because I fitting skin that somehow big hug," Cole says, "and
wanted to write my own was created for me." say, 'Thank you.
songs with my own truths." Cole has returned to the Thank you for being a
Cole went into the Gram- Berklee College of Mu- mentor to me and to so
my Awards in New York sic in Boston as a voice many.'"q
