US CHANTEUSE Paula Cole?s current massive international hit `Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?? has, she says, been grossly misunderstood and misinterpreted in some quarters.
?In the States people think it?s some kind of latter-day ?Stand By Your Man? and that I?m slightly to the right of Nancy Reagan,? she protests. ?Everyone from the New York Times to Spin magazine picked it up wrong. It?s meant to be an ironic observation of a stereotype, but as most Europeans know, Americans just don?t get irony.?
Neither is it even remotely biographical, she stresses.
?It?s definitely not me in the song. It?s about a woman who wants to look after this macho guy and make dinner for him. There are still plenty of people like that out there, and the song is an observation on that.?
Taken from her recently released second long-player This Fire, ?Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? is one of the more melodically accessible numbers on the album. More typically, Cole can be heard venting copious dollops of anger and venom ? aimed largely at her sheltered upbringing in a small town in Massachusetts.
?Music is my purging method,? she reveals. ?I need to be honest and not to censor myself.?
By turns, she celebrates her newfound independence and her elation at leaving this clearly stifling environment behind her. On ?Tiger?, the opening track, for example, Cole announces proudly that: ?I?ve left Bethlehem and I feel free. I?ve left the girl I was supposed to be,? before adding caustically, ?No more sex-starved teachers trying to touch my ass.?
Sounds like a fun town!
?Rockport, Massachusetts where I grew up is an idyllic little place, located near the sea with white picket fences everywhere,? she explains. ?And I hated it. Everyone knows everybody?s business. It?s a dry town, too, and it still has a strong puritan atmosphere. I wanted to live in a place where there were other cultures and different skin colours. I got out as soon as I could and I was angry at it for many years. But not any more. I?ve come to accept it for what it is.?
Cole?s home environment matched that of her surroundings and she confesses to rarely hearing any current pop music in her household.
?We had a few records, mainly stuff like Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and Dolly Parton. I appreciated it ? philosophically. But I was so uncool in school that I eventually had to beg my mother to get cable TV so I could keep up to date. Now, I?m not so worried about it and it?s nice to know I don?t have to be dependent on pop culture.?
SO DEPRESSING
After leaving school, Cole went to the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston where she studied jazz singing and vocal improvisation. Even this period of her life, however, she puts down as a failure.
?I felt I sucked,? she says. ?It felt like shit coming out of my mouth. I wanted to be like Chet Baker or Miles Davis but it?s too much like hard work. The life of a jazz singer is so depressing, anyway, and I couldn?t live that way.?
After graduating, Cole spent four years slogging around the performing circuit, firstly in lounges, hotels, and at weddings and then in coffee houses ?where the cappuccino machine was often louder than the vocals.? Her first big break came when she was asked to replace Siniad O?Connor on Peter Gabriel?s Secret World tour in 1995.
?That was a real honour,? she says. ?When I first heard the song ?Don?t Give Up?, I really wanted to sing that part but I never thought I?d actually be singing it live on stage with Peter Gabriel.?
Gabriel subsequently returned the favour by supplying his distinctive vocal chords on Cole?s sublime ballad ?Hush Hush Hush?.
The Siniad O?Connor link apart, there is an even stronger Irish dimension to Cole?s success. (Relax, everyone ? she?s not related to Paddy Cole!) Co-production on This Fire comes courtesy of sometime U2 producer Kevin Killen, while Seamus Egan, member of New York-based Irish traditional outfit Solas, plays uilleann pipes and whistle on several tracks, most notably on ?Nietzsche?s Eyes?.
A more thorough perusal of the sleeve notes, however, reveals a guitar and production contribution from one Gerry Leonard. Could this be the same Gerry Leonard who was once one half of Dublin duo Hinterland and who, aeons before that, played with legendary Howth outfit The Spies?
?Yeah, it?s the same guy,? Cole reveals. ?And his father worked in the post office with Bono?s father.? (The Department of Posts and Telegraphs, actually!)
?Gerry?s been very successful in the States. He?s played with Cyndi Lauper, and lots of other people. He did the coffee house circuit with me in the early days. He?s great ? he?s so conceptually advanced.?
Meanwhile, with the release of her new single and follow up to ?Cowboys?, the similarly hummable ?I Don?t Want To Wait?, Cole looks set to join that ever-growing band of successful American female artists occupying the upper echelons of hit parades everywhere. Does she feel honoured to be numbered alongside such platinum successes as Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks and Tori Amos?
?Absolutely,? she affirms. ?It?s about time there were more women out there doing it. The biggest change has been radio?s acceptance of women as artists in their own right. Even with my first record, I was constantly being told ?We can?t add you, Paula ? we have so many females on the playlist?. Just imagine it! ? being female is still considered a novelty to some people!? n