INTERVIEW: Paula Boggs Finds Her Highest Self in Sumatra
Most people slow down in retirement, but maybe for Paula Boggs, writing five albums and touring behind them counts. After all, Boggs is an accomplished lawyer with an award-winning career, and she takes that approach to excellent with the Paula Boggs Band, a freewheeling collective of artists who are powerful in their eclecticism. With Sumatra coming out next week, Boggs spoke with us about strength in diversity, her optimistic view of the long arc of justice, and the value of sharing art with each other.
Explain the title of your album.
I love diversity and am my highest self when surrounded by it. Paula Boggs Band manifests that diversity in our sound and composition. Sumatra is one of our planet’s most diverse places. You would be hard pressed to find a more compelling example of critical biodiversity being under grave threat. Endangered species like the Sumatran tiger, rhino, elephant, and orangutan coexist in a single habitat, threatened by rapid deforestation, habitat loss and illegal poaching. Sumatra is also known for over 15,000 plant species, many under threat from the same rapid habitat destruction affecting the animal population. These biodiversity threats have repercussions far beyond Sumatra’s shores and are mostly caused by humans. And so, I thought “Sumatra” could serve as metaphor for the societal upheaval currently underway in the United States and beyond. Attacks on diversity have repercussions far beyond our shores. Sumatra the album is a celebration of diversity — diversity born from ancestry, love and living a life filled with more questions than answers. Sumatra is also my favorite coffee. I savor its bold with low acidity flavor profile. That is what I hope listeners find in Sumatra the album.
Do you have any go-to albums to listen to in the van?
I don’t think we have “go-to” albums but within the band we have tremendously eclectic tastes. Over the course of years and miles, we’ve listened to everything from Miles Davis to reggae, country, blues, folk, “classic rock,” “indie rock,” “hip hop” to classical. It’s cool to hear “deep cuts” of an artist like Bob Dylan, discover a South African band or listen to a project one of our band members is working on beyond Paula Boggs Band. The driver usually gets to choose.
Summer of 2020 was yet another period of intense racial reckoning in the States, with many promises in the music industry to make things more equitable. Have you seen any changes so far?
The arc of the universe is long but as Dr. King said, it bends towards justice. It does not bend though by itself. It takes commitment, intentionality, hard work. I’ve been a voting member of The Recording Academy 15 years and, since 2020, except for one year, I’ve served as a “diversity ambassador” representing its Pacific Northwest Chapter. I have seen progress. The Recording Academy’s leadership has put dollars and action towards making our organization more diverse and inclusive. Still with work to do, several genres within The Recording Academy — like Children’s Music — are racially, and in other ways more diverse today than in 2020. The Academy has listened to concerns expressed by Native American musicians about how their indigenous music shows up in the voting process. The folk genre, as exhibited by organizations like Folk Alliance International and what Folk DJs play on their shows, is more diverse and inclusive today. As a Black Americana Artist, I feel more seen today than in 2020.
Where are some places you’ve found joy within the country/Americana world?
Over the past several years I’ve met many fellow queer artists making and performing country, folk, bluegrass, blues and Americana music. I feel community and joy whenever I get to be in those spaces. Folk Alliance International and its regions, like FAR-West and FARM, are intentional in creating safe space for its queer members and these organizations try to honor intersectionality. I may be queer and BIPOC, queer and female, queer and blind, queer and have a language other than English as my native tongue, queer and over 50.
Have you ever been given something remarkable by a fan?
Three times right after a show a fan has given me a drawing they made of me or the band during our performance. There’s something electric, emotional, and enduring about that. I still have all three drawings. For someone to draw you at a show means they’re devoting their artistic talent to your art with immediacy and love.
Sumatra will be out on March 27, 2026
