I suppose it’s only natural that a musician from Seattle would use a region’s coffee as a metaphor for the style of one of their albums. Sumatran coffee is generally considered to be bold and full-bodied, with notes of earthiness, spice and chocolate. That’s actually not too bad of a one-line review for Paula Boggs fifth album, Sumatra. It’s also a pretty good description of Paula herself, but a bit more about that later.
The title track opens the CD with a Gregorian chant featuring Seattle’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral Evensong Choir. The chant is an homage to a mother figure, transitioning to a pressing folk song about how reality is so different and the need for us to “wake up!” Another musical juxtaposition is The Snow It Melts the Soonest. It’s a traditional English folk song that’s been arranged in more modern style as a tribute to Boggs’ great, great grandmother. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round also started as a traditional piece, albeit in the African American spiritual realm. It’s been reimagined as a jazzy, bluesy call-to-action in the civil rights era. Featuring both The Blind Boys of Alabama and Valerie June on different verses, it admonishes us to “keep on walking, keep on talking, marching to the Freedom Land.”
As powerful as those heritage-based performances are, I found myself drawn more to the written-from-scratch numbers. Bard of Vietnam dances the line between folk and bluegrass in a comment on the wisdom of elders, particularly those who’ve lived through conflict. In a wry twist, she reminds us that “soon enough you is them, goddamn.” Note To Quinn is a letter to a friend lost too early to AIDS, and lists so many things he’s missed due to the tragedy of the disease. It runs guitar and vocals through some sort of effects to give the whole thing a sort of remote feel aligned to idea he’s a “fixed deposit in my memory bank.” Airline Boogie is a fun folk-rap cut in a you-have-to-laugh-or-you’ll-cry sort of way. The anecdotes in the song are all too familiar to anyone who’s been a frequent airline traveller(?) hostage(?). The pedal steel on Still Grateful takes it to the edge of country music, but the lesson learned that being appreciative of the life you’ve been given is completely non-denominational.
As I hinted earlier, Paula Boggs has lived a very rich, full life. As a young, queer, black woman she enlisted in the Army, becoming a paratrooper before parlaying a legal degree into staff positions at the White House and Defense Department. She flipped over into the private sector, becoming a VP at Dell Corporation and then General Counsel and Secretary at Starbucks Corporation. All of that was just the precursor to realizing her true muse was music. Those experiences gave her a full body of stories and perspectives that you can get a tantalizing sip of on Sumatra.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.