She’s exploring the jungles of pop music
By Sean Moeller | Comments(1)
WWW.EDWIN.COM Edwin McCain, who’s had Top 40 hits “I’ll Be” and “I Could Not Ask For More,” will headline a concert Wednesday at the Redstone Room.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Mieka Pauley opens for Edwin McCain on Wednesday at the Redstone Room, River Music Experience, Davenport.
Mieka Pauley always will have something to fall back on if her music career flounders or never fully sails.
What’s funny is that there’s no remorse in the 24-year-old Boston dweller that she’s not already using her biological anthropology degree from Harvard.
Those pursuing $200 guarantees for a night’s work and enduring numbingly long bus or van rides from one city to the next aren’t normally holders of an Ivy League education. But for Pauley, the music won out. “I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I first got to Boston,” she said from her home Monday. “And even with my degree, it’s not like I have any ambition to go to the Congo.“I grew up kind of all over the place, and when I was applying to colleges, I thought I wanted to go there, but I think it was maybe a shot in the dark, like it is for everyone else. I applied and I got it. I didn’t really expect it. If you expect to get into Harvard, that’s kind of creepy. Going to Harvard was great for the experience of it. It actually makes me a lot more daring when it comes to my music because I’ll always have that to go back to.”Pauley isn’t wasting that degree on nothing. There’s a good chance that she’ll turn that diploma into a really expensive piece of paper, collecting dust in a safety-deposit box somewhere, needing only the charming clouds of songs she’s written for her “Out of Car Wrecks and Hurricanes” EP, produced by John Alagia (Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Rachael Yamagata, Liz Phair). Or if Joss Stone was more like Sheryl Crow (and less barefoot all the time) and Aimee Mann was more like Miranda Lambert or some other country pill that listens as much to Norah Jones as it does to Patty Griffin.While Pauley came into her own in the coffeehouses around Boston, leaving her high school garage rock band and those tendencies behind when she moved east for college, she’s rediscovered portions of that side of her on her new recording. “I never saw myself as being just one person and an acoustic guitar, but it’s hard to go back to the way things were before. It’s definitely different when it’s you sitting down with a song,” she said. “I play full-band shows now. I’m pretty familiar with a lot of different venues. I’ve pretty much run tha gamut. Anything is more rowdy than a coffee shop. I want people to go and have a beer and not feel like they can’t talk. In coffeehouses, people might be a little too respectful. They’re just silent and you don’t know if they like you or not. But I’m not trying to bash coffeehouses.”Pauley feels fortunate to have been invited out with Edwin McCain, a situation that gives her easier access to new fans without having to gradually pick them off one-by-one. Another gig that allowed for that was the Sister Hazel curated Rock Boat, which she did two years ago. “That was definitely great,” she said. “I got pretty seasick. I was either seasick or tired the entire time.” Sean Moeller can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or smoeller@qctimes.com. ifyougoWho: Edwin McCain, with Mieka PauleyWhen: 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 10Where: Redstone Room, River Music Experience, 129 Main St., DavenportHow much: $25Information: (563) 326-1333The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Quad-City Times or Lee Enterprises