Paula Cole, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who grew up on the North Shore, has released 63 early recordings in Sonic Memoir: Demos 1989-1998, an archival collection drawn from cassettes and DAT tapes. The set spans her Berklee College of Music years through the period after This Fire. It arrives as Cole brings her This Fire: 30 anniversary tour to Boston for a Friday performance of the full album at The Wilbur.
A Bedroom Archive Born From Loss
An Archive Recovered From Analog Media According to Boston.com, Cole's review of old recordings began while she was digitizing music by her late friend Mark Hutchins for his family. That work eventually led her to examine her own tapes, including early recordings made in Boston. The collection's oldest track, “Watch the Woman's Hands,” was recorded on a Tascam Porta One four-track in her Peterborough Street apartment, according to the report.
Released September 10 through Cole's label 675 Records, Sonic Memoir compiles 63 archived tracks in a 7-LP box set and a 4-CD collection, according to Shore Fire Media. Boston.com reports that the box set includes a 52-page booklet and that the recordings are also available for streaming. Port Merchandise lists the 7-LP box set. According to Port Merchandise, Cole retains full intellectual property ownership of the masters, which were recorded on equipment including an 8-track Tascam TSR-8.
Why old tapes need careful preservation
Cassette and DAT recordings can face preservation challenges. DAT presents additional recovery challenges: the National Archives says the format can develop data dropouts and compatibility errors, while its obsolescence has made playback support and replacement parts difficult to find.
Digitization is therefore only one step in preservation. For resulting digital files, the Library of Congress recommends keeping copies on at least two different storage media in separate physical locations and migrating them to current media about every five years.
Boston-area archives are preserving local recordings
Berklee's archival work underscores the region's preservation challenge. The Boston Public Library has likewise transferred significant holdings from its Sound Archives Collection to the Internet Archive for digitization, preservation and public access. Those efforts show how universities and libraries can help keep locally made recordings available beyond the lifespan of the original formats.
From Rockport Roots to a Grammy Sweep
Cole was born in Rockport, according to Boston.com. She attended Berklee to study jazz and graduated in 1990. According to All About Jazz, she studied jazz singing there before turning toward her own songwriting rather than performing jazz standards. She later returned to Berklee, joining the college's Voice Department faculty in September 2013.
Before her solo career took off, Cole gained international stage experience as a featured duet vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993-1994 Secret World Tour, after Gabriel recruited her to replace Sinead O'Connor, according to Wikipedia. Boston.com's reporting also describes the Boston and San Francisco connections that shaped Cole's early professional years, including her work with longtime musical partner Jay Bellerose and other musicians.
This Fire Turns 30
Cole's breakthrough came with 1996's This Fire, which peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 and earned double-platinum certification from the RIAA for selling more than two million copies in the United States, per Wikipedia. The album's lead single, “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”, reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 and drew three individual Grammy nominations. “I Don't Want to Wait” spent 56 weeks on the Billboard charts after its 1997 release before finding a second life as the theme song for Dawson's Creek, according to Song Exploder, which notes Cole recently re-recorded the track to gain control over its licensing.
That run of success culminated at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards in 1998, where Cole made history as the first woman nominated solo, without a male collaborator, for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical — recognition for having produced This Fire independently, according to the Recording Academy. She received seven total nominations that year across all four major general categories — Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist — winning Best New Artist. The This Fire: 30 tour kicked off nationwide on September 17 at Webster Hall in New York City, part of a run spanning more than 50 markets across North America and Europe, with Cole performing This Fire in its entirety at each stop, including Friday's show at The Wilbur.
The Winding Road to Amen
Cole later appeared on David Byrne's Feelings. Her later collaborations included work with Dolly Parton.
Her 1999 album Amen, which Boston.com describes as incorporating hip-hop and R&B influences, featured T-Boz of TLC. Cole also collaborated with Missy Elliott. The archival material on Sonic Memoir includes collaborations involving Missy Elliott and Isaac Hayes.
