DRIVE is a personal cartography, a songline of the heart. If, as the Aborigine of Australia believed, it is necessary to sing one’s way through all the landmarks leading home, then DRIVE is this woman’s audible map. The route marks not just a heart’s exterior migratory routes, but the off-season pathways to the soul’s interior. Longing fuels this journey from east and west; to the north and south, the trajectory of faith and hope. [[This]] CD was conceived in metaphorical restlessness, yet cached in a paradoxical but complimentary stillness. To create this work, Held had to sit down and wait for all that had been set in motion to catch up and coalesce into a single space and time.

Paula’s voice originates in that dusk between day and night: sensual, breathless, determined, playful. Around her acoustic guitar accompaniment there’s a rich texture woven into Stephen Doster’s intuitive production. Horns and a Hammond organ add sultry undertones to the jazzy mix, rounding out the foundation of piano, bass, drums, and electric guitar from some of Austin’s most seasoned session players.

DRIVE is a CD for the road. Something to slide into the slot on, say, Highway 50, The Loneliest Road, in Nevada. Or the four-lane maze around Miami. Or simply pulled over on the shoulder, watching the moon in the rear view mirror rise over the Sangre de Christo Mountains. No matter where the location of listening turns out to be, this is music to be soothed and stirred by on the long road from elsewhere to home.