American Quilt follows Ballads and Revolution, two albums where Paula Cole dove deep into the American Songbook. Cole performs a similar task here, but her ambition is a bit more ambitious. With American Quilt, she ties together the Great American Songbook with country, blues, folk, and jazz standards, all in an attempt to find commonality between styles and eras. The roots of the album lie in the sessions for Ballads. She held some of the recordings she made in 2016 so they could find "rootsier" companions, which is what ...
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American Quilt follows Ballads and Revolution, two albums where Paula Cole dove deep into the American Songbook. Cole performs a similar task here, but her ambition is a bit more ambitious. With American Quilt, she ties together the Great American Songbook with country, blues, folk, and jazz standards, all in an attempt to find commonality between styles and eras. The roots of the album lie in the sessions for Ballads. She held some of the recordings she made in 2016 so they could find "rootsier" companions, which is what led to American Quilt. Cole relies on a few very familiar tunes -- "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)" sits alongside "Bye Bye Blackbird," and the record ends with "What a Wonderful World" -- but her arrangements are idiosyncratic without being showy. It's just enough to be fresh yet familiar, the slight left turns indeed drawing attention to commonalities instead of differences. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
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