Paula Cole American Quilt LP

Paula Cole has never been afraid of speaking complex truths. With a musical catalog defined by honest and deeply personal lyrics carried by her powerful, radiant voice, Cole has always had a gift for discerning the underlying humanity in stories from her own life as well as those around her. This breathtaking collection is a cavalcade of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and gospel - with Cole's remarkable voice the roadmap to Americana, jazz, and standards.

On her latest record American Quilt, Cole has applied this natural insight to American history and musical roots traditions by interpreting a selection of classic songs - each of which provide an entry point for rediscovering the overlooked stories and figures that populate America's interwoven cultural lineage. The 18th-century mountain ballad, "Wayfaring Stranger," is "a song of hope for world-weary travelers," says Cole, "who endure suffering and heartache and fantasize about the great beyond over Jordan and reuniting with loved ones." The most stirring song on the album is Cole's "Hidden in Plain Sight'" - written during the pandemic. The evocative track opens with her quiet a cappella reading of the spiritual "Steal Away," segueing into the rhythmic "Hidden." Its lyrics detail heroic endeavors of enslaved women who stitched elaborate quilts that served as roadmaps to freedom.

This album reflects a patchwork of music from the cities and the mountains, the fields and the rivers - from movies, to melodies that traversed oceans, centuries, cultures, and continents - sewn together with our collective heartstrings. Paula hopes the listener will step inside the canoe and float down the Missouri River of their mind. That they will hear the gospel of the country, taste the liquor in the speakeasies and that they will feel the freedom in the jazz of the cities, heed the call to morality in the spirituality of a day's hard work, and the call to the Great Beyond from the Appalachians.