Album Notes

Golden oldies, bleeting as loud as her mom would dare on the AM dial of the '78 Ford Supercab, were the first steady stream of music to which Colleen began to mold. 50s and 60s tunes from Motown, the Beach Boys, The King, Stones and the Fab Four were (and still are) committed to that permanent musical memory bank somewhere in her cranium. She also found herself glued to a tweed-speakered cabinet stereo as time went on, armed with headphones and Michael Jackson's Thriller. Colleen grew to love the challenge of singing all vocal, and later the instrumental, parts on each record she was sucked into. Bugs Bunny and the Warner Bros. Orchestra also kept her glued to the TV, not to mention Schoolhouse Rock.

In between horseback riding and ballet classes, Colleen listened to her great grandmother play ragtime on piano, banjo and ukelele. It wasn't until she got 'poetic' in her late teens that she decided a guitar was necessary to accompany the constant flutter of tunes and words. A self-taught guitarist, Colleen made the commitment to purchase her first acoustic at the end of college...a sweet little Washburn she still plucks and plinks upon.

As Colleen left her tiny conservative mid-western town to see how the other hundreds of millions lived, she hauled the Wash' around the country working random jobs and writing simple folk ditties about her experience and that of others. Her job in South Carolina as an Environmental Education Instructor led to Jumpin' Joyce Respess, Colleen's musical twin-or the Costello to her Abbott, you might say. The two were near the same skill level, and had each written a few songs. They ended up at open mics and coffee shops in Charleston, naming themselves The Patsys.

After 2 years at the environmental camp, Colleen decided to check out the progressive Northwest. She managed to convince Joyce to come along so they could keep The Patsys going. The acoustic folk rock harmony duo scraped up gigs just about anywhere in the tiny recreation town of Bend, Oregon, but ended up as the regular Friday night act at Brad's Wine Bistro. Their varying musical influences produced an extensive repertoire. Their sound was anywhere from standard folk and blues to alternative newgrass to 80s pop to flower power 60s to soul 70s.

A few several-month traveling stints since 2001 made it tough for Colleen to buckle down and record. Since moving to the Great White North, she has had the time and resources to record her songs in her bare-bones basement studio and is starting to hit the Calgary music scene.

OTHER PEOPLE'S DRAMA: A CASE STUDY IN BROWBEATING
In case you don't have enough drama of your own, here's a tad more. Can anyone have TOO much drama, really?! Why yes indeedy, since this album is a compilation of DRAMA OVERFLOW from the last 10 + years from the life of an American Vagabond who has recently fled to the United States of Canada. But Other People's Drama inevitably becomes your own by proximity - like a bad virus, static cling or the transitive law. So unless you are some kind of hermit (congratulations), you've got your drama, plus that of every other person you rub elbows (or other parts) with.

Most of the songs in this collection were written whilst in some form of emotional and/or mental angst. From unrequited love to the idiocy of modern advertising, you'll find the results of exasperated attempts to exercise the demons of drama and trap them in song. And we won't forget to poke fun at those naughty little demons now, will we?

While you're sampling some tunes from Other People's Drama, perhaps you can relate. Personal accoutrements that can help enhance your listening pleasure include:
1) Sharp "Point and Laugh" reflex
2) Highly developed sense of self-pity
3) Immense apathy
4) Low tolerance for morons
5) Ultra-Cynicism to cover up an inherent weakness of Romanticism

If you like variety, chances are good you will like this CD. A sense of humor will also enhance your Colleen Cole experience!