LIVE: Backstage With Paula Cole @ the College of St. Rose’s Massry Center, 2/23/12

Review and photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk

Billed as a “Concert and Conversation” with singer-pianist-composer Paula Cole, the uninterrupted two-hour-and-10-minute evening on stageset featured a question-and-answer segment smack in the middle of the program.

Questions shot out from all corners of the Picotte Recital Hall, and the topics covered included Cole’s tenure with Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live Band, her days studying piano at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and her six-year absence from music business because of her marriage, the birth of her daughter and divorce.

Backed by drums and acoustic guitar, Cole performed a stunning repertoire that spanned her entire solo career from 1994’s “Harbinger” to her newest album, 2010’s “Ithaca.”

Captivating, impassioned and possessing a wide-ranging, dynamic voice, the Grammy Award-winning singer didn’t forget her fans, serving up her 1998 mega-hit “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone” during the group’s three-song encore.

And as an added bonus, the charming and very approachable Cole came out into the lobby after the show to sign autographs, pose for pictures and chat with her fans.