Paula Cole is a singer/songwriter from Massachusetts who originally studied jazz singing and improvisation before finding her alternative pop sound. After graduating school and turning down a recording deal with a jazz label, she earned widespread exposure on Peter Gabriel's 1993 Secret World Live Tour and signed on with Imago Records. The label released her debut album Harbinger, in 1994, but went out of business later the same year, leaving Cole free to sign on with Warner Bros. Records, who reissued her first LP as well as her most renowned album, 1996's This Fire. The record spawned the radio hits "Where Have All the Coboys Gone" and "I Don't Want To Wait," which earned widespread popularity as the theme song for the WB's television series Dawson's Creek. After one more studio album with the major label, she took a break from music to raise her daughter and returned in 2007 with the LP Courage.
