Paula Cole plays The Stephen Talkhouse

It is truly my time now, at 50.” – Paula Cole.

More beautiful than ever, in a twenty-plus-year-career, Paula Cole releases “Ballads,” a twenty-song collection of American jazz and folk classics from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. It is dedicated to her father, Jim Cole.

Cole started as a jazz singer and now returns, at nearly 50 years of age, to pay homage to her first love of jazz and folk. A self-described “mother and human being first,” Cole is a timeless voice not only in song, but for those who have felt pain, and who still stand shining light, against all odds.

With a voice that is big, rich and gorgeous, a mind that is intelligent, and a heart that transforms suffering into beauty, Paula Cole sings for our enlightenment, for our souls. “Ballads” is a journey to Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan, to John Coltrane and Nina Simone, to Bobbie Gentry and Nancy Wilson, sung by a stunning Paula Cole we’ve not yet heard.

Paula Cole is the voice behind Peter Gabriel’s “Secret World Live,” hits “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”, “I Don’t Want To Wait”, and the brave, brazen double platinum album, “This Fire.” Cole has infused wit and poetry in seven albums of original work over a twenty-plus-year-career.

In performance, Cole gives of herself to such a degree that she elicits tears and gasps and goose bumps from audiences. In her lyrics, she writes of inner life, of redemption, a woman’s perspective; of social justice. As the first woman in history to solely produce and receive the Best Producer Grammy nomination for her work, This Fire, Cole broke boundaries with a searcher’s spirit.