Paula Boggs

Paula Boggs has always believed music should take you somewhere. On Sumatra, her new album with the Paula Boggs Band, she makes good on that promise — opening with Gregorian chant recorded at a Seattle cathedral and closing with a joyous civil rights anthem featuring Valerie June and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Rooted in American roots music but ranging freely across folk, gospel, jazz, and spoken word, the album was born from years of walks, voice memos, and a deepening preoccupation with the tension between beauty and loss. Boggs recently sat down to talk about the making of Sumatra and why forward, as she sings on “Route 66,” only works as an action verb.