New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and producer Paula Cole will release Lo, her first collection of entirely new, original songs in nearly a decade, on March 1, 2024. Today, Paula Cole released the third offering from the album, "Invisible Armor." "Invisible Armor" is the emotional centerpiece of the album, showcasing Paula's vulnerability and struggles with lyrics depicting a journey through pain and adversity.
Paula Cole is set to return to New York City this month for her special Grammy Museum event, titled "A New York Evening With Paula Cole." The event, scheduled for February 27th at 7:30 pm at National Sawdust, will feature Paula Cole in conversation with the Grammy-winning Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Elvis Costello, and Allen Toussaint.) Tickets are available here.
The first single from Lo, "The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr." was released last month and is a heartfelt tribute to Paula's friend and artistic mentor, Mark Hutchins, who left us too soon, aged 51. These songs, like the forthcoming album, beautifully blend vulnerability with joy, staying true to Paula's signature authentic and soul-stirring style. Today, Last month Paula released the second single from the album, "Green Eyes Crying" - a song created through ultimatum, frustration and angst.
The album features longtime Paula collaborator Jay Bellerose (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John) on drums, plus Ross Gallagher (Joe Henry, Marc Ribot) on upright bass, Chris Bruce (Meshell Ndegeocello, Bettye LaVette, Tom Waits) on guitar, and Rich Hinman (Maren Morris, Sara Bareilles) on pedal steel and guitar. The album was produced by Paula and recorded at The Village recording studio in Los Angeles by nine time Grammy-winning engineer, Mike Piersante.
Paula has also announced an extensive US tour which will kick off April 11 in Chicago, and feature many of the musicians who perform on Lo in her backing band. See below for a full list of dates.
A truth-teller, provocateur, feminist, and brilliant autobiographical writer who has pushed for personal honesty and social change, Paula wrote all the songs on Lo, as a way to navigate her opening to trust again after life's indelible blows. Weaving the personal with the universal, she wrestles with questions of identity and intimacy, history and our collective failure to learn from it, ultimately showing the album to be a window into her own psyche.
Paula Cole is a Best New Artist Grammy-winner and was the first woman nominated in her own right for a Grammy for "Producer of the Year." She has in recent years honored her love for jazz and folk standards, and songs for social justice with her releases 'Ballads', 'American Quilt' and 'Revolution' for which NPR called her a "boundary-pushing feminist trailblazer," for having "long incorporated powerful social statements into her emotional hit songs." Her beloved anthems "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait" are still playlist and radio perennials.
PAULA COLE US TOUR DATES:
4/11 Chicago, IL, Old Town School of Folk Music
4/12 Minneapolis, MN, Parkway Theater
4/20 Livermore, CA, Livermore Valley PAC
4/21 Saratoga, CA, Montalvo Arts Center Carriage House
4/24 Santa Barbara, CA, Lobero Theater
4/26 Los Angeles, Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State
4/27 Taos, NM Taos Center For The Arts
4/29 Phoenix, AZ
5/31 Plymouth, NH, The Flying Monkey
6/1 South Orange, NJ, SOPAC
6/2 NYC, Sony Hall
6/20 Old Saybrook, CT, The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Center
6/21 Nashua, NH, Nashua Center For The Arts
6/22 Brownfield, ME, Stone Mountain Arts Center
6/23 Newport, RI, Jane Pickens Theatre
7/12 New Hope, PA, New Hope Winery
7/13 Washington D.C., Kennedy Center Millenium Stage Series
