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Mieka Pauley
w/ Abdel Wright & Citizen Cope
by Craig Cook

A woman, a guitar, a stolen soul and a broken heart. Seeing Mieka Pauley for the first time made me understand what it is to be loved by a woman, and how much I truly longed for the one that got away. When she took the stage at Sin-e each week, the rowdy after after-work drunks, the cackling gossipers, the higher-than-thou hipsters and even the industry insiders stopped their conversations and concentrated their attention. The woman standing on the stage slid up there with a coy slickness, quietly plugging in her dreadnaught, and addressed the audience with a soft, comforting welcome. As she assumed her role as the night's opening entertainer, Mieka drew from a well of finely crafted originals focusing on loving interaction; that special relationship between two humans that has no equal in the animal kingdom.

I can’t possibly assume the origins of her cryptic soul, but I know that for thirty minutes each week, for four weeks, Mieka Pauley communicated with me, as in the first person me. Her mastery of the intimate made me feel as if I was alone in the room, the benefactor of a private performance. The pin drop silence of the stunned crowed allowed me to hear even the most muted inflection as my gaze hardly broke from her beauty. I caught myself looking around the room once or twice, else I burn a hole in her body, and was amused to see faces in the crowd as contorted as mine must have been. Eyes closed, hips swaying, lost in your own little world where all that mattered was Mieka’s sonic epiphany and an angry, ashamed acknowledgement that in all your years prior, this was a voice that was conspicuously absent from your experience.


Stand out composition “The Way It Is” tells a story of a one sided love, an unquenchable yearning for someone who doesn’t return the passion. “The way it is, I can’t complain; I would love to drive you insane; but I’m not on your mind, it’s in my head, and it’s me who’s insane instead.” The inner monologue conjures images of a best friend, the one you always wanted to relate to on a more intimate level, if not for the fact that you could never quite build up the courage to break the friendship barrier. The recorded version holds up to the raw emotion of the live performance, but at a mere 3:08 cannot contain the narrative. The extended live arrangement made a much stronger statement and offered insight into the depths that Pauley could reach if given the luxury of time.

“Run” and “Secret” are two more Pauley works contained on the tour sampler that she shared with Cope and Wright. Both tracks have enigmatic lyrics, strong melodic and rhythmic sensibility, and have brought me back to my iTunes over and over again (I even utilized the repeat button for the first time since my digital dawn while listening to “Run”). Mieka will be appearing at two prestigious summer showcases; the Atlantis Music Conference's opening on July 22nd, 8 PM at 10 High Club in Atlanta & July 23rd at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival's renowned Emerging Artist showcase, in the foothills of the Berkshires in Hillsdale, NY. Keep your ears open, Mieka Pauly is going to make some sound waves!