Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole is set to take the stage at the E.A Rawlinson Centre on Saturday, Oct. 19, performing alongside longtime friend Sophie B. Hawkins as part of their Western Canadian tour.
Cole said she specifically asked to spend the rest of the year touring Canada.
I told my manager I didn’t want to play in the United States for the rest of the year. I wanted to go to Canada,” she said. “I like the kindness, I like the culture, but I’ve never been to the middle of the country. We’ll be driving through the prairies, and I look forward to it.”
The Massachusetts-born artist added that she understands small-town life and believes it’s important for musicians to visit communities outside big cities.
“I’m from a small town myself. It’s important that artists visit smaller communities; they make fans for life,” she said.
Cole and Hawkins first met in 1995 through Melissa Etheridge during a VH1 special and quickly became close friends.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole (Right) and Sophie B.Hawkins (left) will co-headline a Western Canadian tour, with a stop at the E.A. Rawlinson Centre in Prince Albert on Oct 19.
“We just like each other,” Cole reflected fondly. “We’ll share the long drives together, literally travelling in the same van. And I highly respect her music. She has her ego seriously in check. What a kind human being.”
Before this tour, Cole helped change the landscape for women in music through her involvement with Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking female-led festival founded by Sarah McLachlan.
“Promoters didn’t want two women on the same bill. Radio stations had quotas; sometimes you couldn’t play two female artists within the hour,” she recalled. “But our tour with Sarah went fantastically well, and audiences knew it was wrong to limit women. Lilith Fair changed that.”
“Now women dominate the pop charts, and people don’t even think about it anymore,” she added. “But it’s important to recognize the work we did to push the ceiling higher.”
Her timeless hits and new music
While audiences still cheer for Where Have All the Cowboys Gone and I Don’t Want to Wait, Cole said she hopes fans discover her wider catalogue.
“People know me more for my songs than my name, and I’m okay with that,” she said. “I wish more people would listen to my deep cuts and ballads; I think that’s my best work.”
Her latest album, Lo, marks a return to deeply personal songwriting after two albums of cover material.
“It feels fantastic to sing these songs live,” she said. “Some are rocking, some are tranquil, some talk about the difficulty of marriage; there are just so many emotions in there.”
On Songwriting and Connection
Cole said honesty and vulnerability have always guided her craft.
Songwriting is a place I go to connect with my feelings,” she said. “Music heals us; that’s what it is.”
She described live performance as essential to who she is.
“I’m not a full person if I’m away from performing too long,” she said. “It just makes me the full person that I am.”
Even in small theatres like the Rawlinson, she said the intimacy of live music can be profound.
“If it’s five people, fifty, or fifty thousand, I love performing,” she said. “Small theatres are where my music sounds the best; it’s more intimate to connect to the audience.”
“I hope they feel their feelings: joy, love, and connection,” she said. “Audiences usually come away feeling lighter and happier. That’s what I want.”
