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<\/p>\nPaula Boggs has one of the more unusual biographies in music. Before devoting herself full time to performing and making albums, Boggs was an Army paratrooper, a U.S. Attorney, general counsel for Starbucks, and a vice president at Dell Computer Corporation. But there’s a definite thread running through her history that led her to where she is today, making socially conscious soulgrass with her group.<\/p>\n
Though the Seattle-based Paula Boggs Band is nominally folk-protest, its leader’s indefatigable undercurrent of optimism shines through. Inspired to start her band after reading Questlove’s appeal (\u201cI urge and challenge musicians and artists alike to push themselves to be a voice of the times that we live in,\u201d he wrote in 2014), Boggs built a repertoire of original and carefully-chosen covers that expressed her concerns.<\/p>\n
The title of Boggs’ 2017 live EP illustrates Paula Boggs’ worldview: Songs of Protest and Hope<\/i> includes three originals, including \u201cLook Straight Ahead,\u201d a song that she describes as \u201cour prayer for better days.\u201d And the spirit of a past folk-protest era is evoked in live readings of Joni Mitchell’s \u201cWoodstock\u201d and Dino Valenti’s \u201cGet Together.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A new original song was premiered days ago, when the Paula Boggs Band took part in a commemoration of the victims of last year’s massacre in Charleston, S.C. \u201c’Benediction’ was inspired by that massacre,\u201d Boggs says. The band was joined by the Mother Emmanuel Gospel Choir. Boggs describes the song as \u201can example of the music activism we find in our life today.\u201d The song will appear on the band’s next record, Elixir: The Soulgrass Sessions<\/i>, scheduled for release in September.<\/p>\n
Boggs agrees that \u2013 thanks in part to Questlove’s urging in the wake of the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown killings \u2013 we may be experiencing another golden age of protest in the arts. \u201cThis era has already formed great protest music, and that will always continue,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Once one goes beyond the surface and begins to understand Boggs’ history, her eventual rebirth as a folk-protest singer doesn’t seem like such a radical career change. \u201cI think there is a constant theme,\u201d Boggs says. \u201cI’m a very mission-oriented person.\u201d She says that whether her job involved jumping out of planes or working in the private sector, she always sought \u201csomething that was bigger than me, and that aligned with values I hold.\u201d Her sense of mission was developed early, while attending Catholic elementary school in Maryland.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was a professor at a historically black college in Virginia,\u201d she says. Both at home and in school Boggs was taught that as someone fortunate, she had responsibilities. \u201cYou’ve got to give back,\u201d she says, quoting John F. Kennedy’s paraphrasing the gospel of Luke. \u201cFor of those to whom much is given, much is required.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose themes really resonate with me throughout my life journey,\u201d Boggs says. And in each phase of her career, Boggs has been a catalyst for change. \u201cI was a closeted gay person before I joined Dell,\u201d she explains. But once she came out \u2013 and as the first openly gay executive at Dell, \u201cit was a movement that led to liberation for me, and it gave permission for other people at Dell to come out of the closet, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Starbucks, Boggs led the Law and Corporate Affairs Department, \u201ca community of people who wanted to make a difference,\u201d she says. That division provided legal services to the poor, and in Boggs’ words, \u201cbecame a leader in diversity in the legal profession.\u201d<\/p>\n
After she left Starbucks, Boggs was asked to serve on President Obama’s Commission on the Arts and Humanities. While simultaneously getting her music career off the ground, she worked on the Turnaround Arts program, matching celebrity mentors with low-performing elementary and middle schools. Enlisting the aid of classical cellist Yo Yo Ma, actor Sarah Jessica Parker and others, Turnaround Arts demonstrated success, and \u2013 thanks to eventual sponsorship by the Kennedy Center — was able to survive into the Trump era.<\/p>\n
Once her time on the Commission ended, Boggs put all of her focus on songwriting and performing with her band.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople often tell us that it’s so cool to come to our performance and actually be able to hear what the musicians are singing,\u201d Boggs says. \u201cTo hear the poetry of the lyrics is something that people don’t always get to experience in a gig or concert setting, and so we try to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Paula Boggs Band focuses on putting on a show, too. Onstage, each of the five band members switches constantly among several instruments. \u201cWe have a lot of three-part harmony, too,\u201d Boggs says. \u201cThere’s a lot of emotion on that stage. And we’re multi-racial,\u201dshe says with a laugh. \u201cWe look like the U.N. up there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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