Crawford’s career blooms late

Paula Crawford first picked up a guitar at age 30.

Though she will celebrate her 40th birthday on Tuesday, Crawford says she is now living her life as though she is 30 again, a realization she reached through her singing and songwriting.

“I feel 30. When I was 10, I felt 20, so now I’m going to go backwards,” says Paula, an Independence native and a 1988 William Chrisman High School graduate. “I’m more confident and more proud of myself.”

Crawford’s performance tonight at Main Street Coffee House on the Square marks the official release of her first full-length album, “Pretty Pretend,” which she recorded earlier this year at Wheeler Audio in Kansas City.

In a style she describes as “coffee-shop blues,” Paula calls “Pretty Pretend” the monument in marking a life change. Dressed in a white sweater and a red gingham skirt with her auburn hair secured back loosely, Paula says she’s starting a second phase in life.

“I have some issues with self-esteem and whatnot, but you grow up and you grow out of those things. You realize you’re OK,” says Paula. She never participated in band classes while growing up. Her music-making ventures began at coffee shops and at open-mic nights throughout her 30s.

“I did sing in choir in high school, but I don’t think if you stood next to me you could have even heard me.”

Produced by Baron Stout and featuring Paula’s boyfriend, Jason Vivone, on guitar and harmony vocals, along with other accompanying musicians, four of the 10 tracks on “Pretty Pretend” showcase Paula’s acoustic music.  

“Sometimes I felt like I wasn’t being listened to,” she says of the album’s title. “I wasn’t gonna be the pretty face that just tried to get along with everybody and kind of live my life under everybody else’s rules. I wasn’t going to pretend anymore. It was time for a change and no more living in a bubble.”

Among her favorites on her new album is “Bomb Pop Smile,” a “folky, little story song about going to the park and seeing the ice cream man coming up and remembering that happen to you as a kid,” Paula says. “It’s real sweet.”

Paula counts American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley among her influences, as well as Patti Smith and Lucinda Williams.

But her main influence lies in her father, Ralph Crawford, the first person Paula saw play guitar.

“I would just sit at his feet, in awe of what he could do,” she says, “but having it shown to me with a man, I didn’t know I could do that. Back in the ‘70s, I hadn’t seen a lot of females on TV, so I just kind of thought that was a man thing.”

Ralph himself grew up around music, his mother teaching him his first few chords on guitar, “kind of like Paula,” he says. “I taught her the first few chords, and she just went from there.”

“She’s just relentless and on it all the time – and I told her that’s what she had to do if she wanted to stay in this,” Ralph adds. “I’m really proud of Paula and for her to say I’m her inspiration makes me even prouder.”

Paula works full-time as a bartender and server at the Square’s Diamond Bowl and is the mother of two daughters, ages 15 and 19. As a musician, she wants to hear her music played on the Kansas City-based radio station 90.9 The Bridge. Paula says she wants her audience members to know that her songs are real – and so is she.

“I want my music all over the world, and with the Internet, that’s very possible now,” Paula says. “I want them to be happy that it’s a local, hometown girl whose dreams are coming true, but she’s down-to-earth. I want my music to stick in their head.”

If you go...

WHAT: Independence resident Paula Crawford’s “Pretty Pretend” CD release party

WHEN: 7 to 9 tonight

WHERE: Main Street Coffee House, 107 S. Main St. in Independence

DETAILS: Copies of Crawford’s first full-length CD, “Pretty Pretend,” will be available for $10 each. Crawford also will perform from 9 p.m. to midnight Aug. 28 at Coda, 1744 Broadway St. in Kansas City. Visit www.myspace.com/paulacrawford for more information.