Natalie Merchant

Submitted by nonesuch on
Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Natalie Merchant's self-titled album is her sixth solo work and her first collection of entirely original songs in 13 years. Merchant describes the self-produced release as informed "by decades of experience and keen observation," dealing with issues of "damage, love gained and lost, regret, denial, surrender, greed, destructiveness, defeat, and occasional triumph." The AP calls it a "rich musical tapestry." The Telegraph lauds her "quietly magnificent" voice. Merchant "is in terrific form," says the Times of London. "It is Merchant’s mature, versatile voice that steals the show."

Description

Nonesuch Records releases Natalie Merchant’s new self-titled album on May 6, 2014. The recording is the multi-platinum singer’s sixth solo collection, and her first of entirely original songs in 13 years. 

This self-produced album is the work of a mature artist with a clear and distinctive voice. Long appreciated for the depth and substance of her writing, Merchant has never shied away from weighty themes or subjects for her lyrics. She describes the new release as informed "by experience and keen observation," dealing with issues of "love gained and lost, regret, denial, surrender, greed, destructiveness, defeat, and occasional triumph."

Combining three decades of experience in song writing and album making, Merchant's production style is nuanced and pure. Her voice is framed by a balanced blend of electric and acoustic sound throughout with musicianship of exceptional quality. String, brass, and woodwind arrangements mingle with Hammond organ and electric guitar improvisations. Players include John Medeski, Shawn Pelton, Clark Gayton, Uri Sharlin, Jesse Murphy, Erik Della Penna, Gabriel Gordon, and guest vocalists Simi Stone, Elizabeth Mitchell, and gospel singer Corliss Stafford.

Merchant’s career began when, as a college student, she joined the seminal alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs. Serving as lead vocalist, lyricist, and sometime pianist, Merchant released five critically acclaimed studio albums with the band, including the platinum-selling In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man’s Zoo (1989), Our Time in Eden (1992), and MTV Unplugged (1993). Merchant left the group in 1993, after 12 years, to record her first solo album. Tigerlily (1995) was certified five-times platinum, and was followed by the platinum Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999), and Motherland (2001).

In 2002 Merchant departed Elektra Records, and a contractual relationship she had been bound to since signing at the age of 19, in 1984. She took an extended hiatus from pop music and major labels, independently releasing a collection of folk music, The House Carpenter's Daughter (Myth America, 2003), which also coincided with the birth of her first child. For the next seven years she lived quietly in New York's Hudson Valley devoting herself to family and community, whilst taking opportunities to collaborate with other musicians and strengthen her commitment to activism and philanthropy.

In 2005 she was appointed by Governor Eliot Spitzer to serve a four-year term on the 20-member board of New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). She worked with a group of homeless musicians on a benefit album, Give US Your Poor (2006), and a documentary film, No Good Reason (2006). She worked with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, collaborated with British composer Gavin Bryars and the Royal Shakespeare Company on The Sonnet Project (2007), and in 2008 contributed to the Cowboy Junkies’ 20th anniversary re-recording of their first album, The Trinity Session. Also in 2008, at the invitation of the Boston Pops, Merchant built an orchestral repertoire drawn from her catalogue of songs to perform in concert, a show she continues to expand and perform. She celebrated the 60th anniversary of the declaration of human rights with Amnesty International’s The Price of Silence initiative, and sang with the student choir of The Perkins School for the Blind to raise funds. In 2009 she contributed to David Byrne's song cycle recording, Here Lies Love, based on the life of Imelda Marcos.

In 2010, Merchant returned with a thematic double album entitled Leave Your Sleep, her debut for Nonesuch Records. A meditation on childhood and mothering, the anthology comprised 19th and 20th century American and British classic children's poetry by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Robert Graves, Edward Lear, and E.E. Cummings that Merchant had set to music. She collaborated with 130 musicians in a wide variety of musical styles, handpicking musicians who represent the best in their fields, including the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Medeski Martin & Wood, The Fairfield Four, The Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, the Ditty Bops, the New York Philharmonic, The Klezmatics, Lúnasa, and Hazmat Modine. Merchant’s fascination with the poets led her to research their lives and write an 80-page companion book. The result was praised by critics on both sides of the Atlantic, with the Wall Street Journal calling it "an ideal fit between poetic and musical forms," and the Independent, "a hugely ambitious and beautifully realized double album."

Since the album’s release, Merchant was honored for the project as a New York Public Library Lion in 2011, along with authors Jonathan Franzen, Ian McEwan, and playwright Tony Kushner. That same year, NYC public school children studied a three-month unit on poetry and music with a curriculum drawn from the album. In 2012, Merchant teamed up with award-winning children's book illustrator Barbara McClintock for a new picture book based on Leave Your Sleep published by Farrar Straus Giroux. Inspired by her 2010 TED Talk about the project, Merchant has also developed a live children's orchestral concert that integrates projections of McClintock's illustrations and has presented this educational program to thousands of children in several US cities, including Carnegie Hall this spring.

Merchant remains dedicated to a wide array of social justice and environmental causes. Recently, her attention has been focused on the threats to public health and the environment posed by the natural gas extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing. In 2013 she spearheaded the making of a protest concert film, Dear Governor Cuomo, with New Yorkers Against Fracking, actors Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo, and film makers Jon Bowermaster and Alex Gibney. This month, SHELTER: A Concert Film to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence, directed and produced by Merchant, will have its first public screening in connection with Eve Ensler's annual One Billion Rising campaign. Merchant is exploring a new approach to protest through filming multi-media events that inform the public, heighten the profile of community organizers, and encourage action. "It's not enough for me anymore to just show up and sing a song at a benefit and feel I've done my bit. I want to offer my skills to create more comprehensive campaigns on behalf of over-strapped and under-staffed non-profits."

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Natalie Merchant
Recorded by Eli Walker & George Cowan
with the exception of “It’s a-Coming” & “Texas,” recorded by Paul Antonell & Eli Walker
Recorded at The Clubhouse, Rhinebeck, NY
Additional string & woodwind sessions recorded at Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY
Mixed by Eli Walker at The Magic Shop, New York, NY
Assistant engineer at The Clubhouse: Bella Blasko
Assistant engineers at Electric Lady Studios: John Horne & Elizabeth Bauer
Assistant engineers at The Magic Shop: Kabir Hermon & Alex Nappi
Project coordinator: Jennifer McKinley, assisted by Summer Damon

All songs written by Natalie Merchant
Published by Indian Love Bride © 2013 ASCAP

Photography by Dan Winters
Package Design by F. Ron Miller

Nonesuch Selection Number

541042

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
Album Status
Artist Name
Natalie Merchant
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Natalie Merchant, vocals (1-8, 10, 11)
Gabriel Gordon, electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10), acoustic guitar (1- 5, 7, 9)
Erik Della Penna, electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 7, 8), lap steel guitar (3, 5), acoustic guitar (9)
Uri Sharlin, grand piano (1, 4, 10), Wurlitzer piano (2), accordion (5), electric piano (7), upright tack piano (9, 10)
John Medeski, organ (1, 4), electric keyboard (2)
Jesse Murphy, electric bass (1, 2, 4, 6, 7), acoustic bass (5, 10), tuba (9)
Shawn Pelton, drums (1, 2, 4-7)
Johanna Warren, backing vocals (1, 2, 6)
Simi Stone, backing vocals (1, 4)
Tamar-kali, backing vocals (1)
Lisa Kim, Sharon Yamada, violin (1, 6, 10, 11)
Quan Ge, Joanna Maurer, Liz Lim, Sein Ryu, violin (1, 6, 11)
Robert Rinehart, viola (1, 6, 10, 11)
Vivek Kamath, viola (1)
Alan Stepansky, cello (1, 6, 10, 11)
Wei Yu, cello (1)
John Patitucci, double bass (1)
Jeremy McCoy, double bass (1, 6, 11)
Stephen Barber, string arrangement (1), string & woodwind arrangement (10)
Sandra Park, orchestra contractor (1, 6, 10, 11)
Jacob Owen, copyist (1, 11)
Elizabeth Mitchell, backing vocals (2, 6)
Marc Friedman, electric bass (3, 8)
Andrew Barr, drums (3, 8)
Corliss Stafford, vocals (4)
Clark Gayton, horn arrangement (4), trombone & tuba (4, 5)
Eddie Allen, trumpet & flugelhorn (4, 5)
Kyle Armbrust, viola (6, 11)
Ru Pie Yeh, cello (6, 11)
Kurt Muroki, double bass (6, 11)
Nadége Foofat, Tony Finno, string arrangement (6, 11)
Steve Elson, saxophones & clarinet (7)
Jonathan Dreyden, organ (8)
Kenny Wollesen, drums & percussion (9, 10)
Mindy Kaufmann, flute (10)
Anthony McGill, clarinet (10)
Marc Goldberg, bassoon (10)

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597955804
Label
MP3
Price
11.00
UPC
075597957167
Label
FLAC
Price
12.00
UPC
075597951141
Label
CD+MP3+Signed Print
Price
0.00
UPC
075597955798
  • 541042

Track Listing

News & Reviews

  • Natalie Merchant was on Radio Popolare in Milan to discuss her new album, Keep Your Courage, and more and perform the title track to her 2001 album, Motherland, live in the studio. The session comes ahead of the close of Merchant's European tour and her first shows in Italy in over 20 years, in Milan and Chiara this weekend. You can hear the conversation and performance here. Merchant will return to Italy to host a new workshop at Fondazione Prada’s Accademia dei bambini in Milan on January 28.

  • Natalie Merchant was on BBC Radio 4's Start the Week to talk with presenter Kirsty Wark and fellow guests Jeffrey Boakye and Michel Faber about her new album, Keep Your Courage, and more. You can hear their conversation here. Merchant embarks on a European headlining tour beginning in Berlin tomorrow, followed by two nights at The London Palladium on Thursday and Friday, and including her first shows in Italy since 2002. 

  • About This Album

    Nonesuch Records releases Natalie Merchant’s new self-titled album on May 6, 2014. The recording is the multi-platinum singer’s sixth solo collection, and her first of entirely original songs in 13 years. 

    This self-produced album is the work of a mature artist with a clear and distinctive voice. Long appreciated for the depth and substance of her writing, Merchant has never shied away from weighty themes or subjects for her lyrics. She describes the new release as informed "by experience and keen observation," dealing with issues of "love gained and lost, regret, denial, surrender, greed, destructiveness, defeat, and occasional triumph."

    Combining three decades of experience in song writing and album making, Merchant's production style is nuanced and pure. Her voice is framed by a balanced blend of electric and acoustic sound throughout with musicianship of exceptional quality. String, brass, and woodwind arrangements mingle with Hammond organ and electric guitar improvisations. Players include John Medeski, Shawn Pelton, Clark Gayton, Uri Sharlin, Jesse Murphy, Erik Della Penna, Gabriel Gordon, and guest vocalists Simi Stone, Elizabeth Mitchell, and gospel singer Corliss Stafford.

    Merchant’s career began when, as a college student, she joined the seminal alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs. Serving as lead vocalist, lyricist, and sometime pianist, Merchant released five critically acclaimed studio albums with the band, including the platinum-selling In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man’s Zoo (1989), Our Time in Eden (1992), and MTV Unplugged (1993). Merchant left the group in 1993, after 12 years, to record her first solo album. Tigerlily (1995) was certified five-times platinum, and was followed by the platinum Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999), and Motherland (2001).

    In 2002 Merchant departed Elektra Records, and a contractual relationship she had been bound to since signing at the age of 19, in 1984. She took an extended hiatus from pop music and major labels, independently releasing a collection of folk music, The House Carpenter's Daughter (Myth America, 2003), which also coincided with the birth of her first child. For the next seven years she lived quietly in New York's Hudson Valley devoting herself to family and community, whilst taking opportunities to collaborate with other musicians and strengthen her commitment to activism and philanthropy.

    In 2005 she was appointed by Governor Eliot Spitzer to serve a four-year term on the 20-member board of New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). She worked with a group of homeless musicians on a benefit album, Give US Your Poor (2006), and a documentary film, No Good Reason (2006). She worked with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, collaborated with British composer Gavin Bryars and the Royal Shakespeare Company on The Sonnet Project (2007), and in 2008 contributed to the Cowboy Junkies’ 20th anniversary re-recording of their first album, The Trinity Session. Also in 2008, at the invitation of the Boston Pops, Merchant built an orchestral repertoire drawn from her catalogue of songs to perform in concert, a show she continues to expand and perform. She celebrated the 60th anniversary of the declaration of human rights with Amnesty International’s The Price of Silence initiative, and sang with the student choir of The Perkins School for the Blind to raise funds. In 2009 she contributed to David Byrne's song cycle recording, Here Lies Love, based on the life of Imelda Marcos.

    In 2010, Merchant returned with a thematic double album entitled Leave Your Sleep, her debut for Nonesuch Records. A meditation on childhood and mothering, the anthology comprised 19th and 20th century American and British classic children's poetry by the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Robert Graves, Edward Lear, and E.E. Cummings that Merchant had set to music. She collaborated with 130 musicians in a wide variety of musical styles, handpicking musicians who represent the best in their fields, including the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Medeski Martin & Wood, The Fairfield Four, The Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, the Ditty Bops, the New York Philharmonic, The Klezmatics, Lúnasa, and Hazmat Modine. Merchant’s fascination with the poets led her to research their lives and write an 80-page companion book. The result was praised by critics on both sides of the Atlantic, with the Wall Street Journal calling it "an ideal fit between poetic and musical forms," and the Independent, "a hugely ambitious and beautifully realized double album."

    Since the album’s release, Merchant was honored for the project as a New York Public Library Lion in 2011, along with authors Jonathan Franzen, Ian McEwan, and playwright Tony Kushner. That same year, NYC public school children studied a three-month unit on poetry and music with a curriculum drawn from the album. In 2012, Merchant teamed up with award-winning children's book illustrator Barbara McClintock for a new picture book based on Leave Your Sleep published by Farrar Straus Giroux. Inspired by her 2010 TED Talk about the project, Merchant has also developed a live children's orchestral concert that integrates projections of McClintock's illustrations and has presented this educational program to thousands of children in several US cities, including Carnegie Hall this spring.

    Merchant remains dedicated to a wide array of social justice and environmental causes. Recently, her attention has been focused on the threats to public health and the environment posed by the natural gas extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing. In 2013 she spearheaded the making of a protest concert film, Dear Governor Cuomo, with New Yorkers Against Fracking, actors Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo, and film makers Jon Bowermaster and Alex Gibney. This month, SHELTER: A Concert Film to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence, directed and produced by Merchant, will have its first public screening in connection with Eve Ensler's annual One Billion Rising campaign. Merchant is exploring a new approach to protest through filming multi-media events that inform the public, heighten the profile of community organizers, and encourage action. "It's not enough for me anymore to just show up and sing a song at a benefit and feel I've done my bit. I want to offer my skills to create more comprehensive campaigns on behalf of over-strapped and under-staffed non-profits."

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Natalie Merchant, vocals (1-8, 10, 11)
    Gabriel Gordon, electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6-8, 10), acoustic guitar (1- 5, 7, 9)
    Erik Della Penna, electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 7, 8), lap steel guitar (3, 5), acoustic guitar (9)
    Uri Sharlin, grand piano (1, 4, 10), Wurlitzer piano (2), accordion (5), electric piano (7), upright tack piano (9, 10)
    John Medeski, organ (1, 4), electric keyboard (2)
    Jesse Murphy, electric bass (1, 2, 4, 6, 7), acoustic bass (5, 10), tuba (9)
    Shawn Pelton, drums (1, 2, 4-7)
    Johanna Warren, backing vocals (1, 2, 6)
    Simi Stone, backing vocals (1, 4)
    Tamar-kali, backing vocals (1)
    Lisa Kim, Sharon Yamada, violin (1, 6, 10, 11)
    Quan Ge, Joanna Maurer, Liz Lim, Sein Ryu, violin (1, 6, 11)
    Robert Rinehart, viola (1, 6, 10, 11)
    Vivek Kamath, viola (1)
    Alan Stepansky, cello (1, 6, 10, 11)
    Wei Yu, cello (1)
    John Patitucci, double bass (1)
    Jeremy McCoy, double bass (1, 6, 11)
    Stephen Barber, string arrangement (1), string & woodwind arrangement (10)
    Sandra Park, orchestra contractor (1, 6, 10, 11)
    Jacob Owen, copyist (1, 11)
    Elizabeth Mitchell, backing vocals (2, 6)
    Marc Friedman, electric bass (3, 8)
    Andrew Barr, drums (3, 8)
    Corliss Stafford, vocals (4)
    Clark Gayton, horn arrangement (4), trombone & tuba (4, 5)
    Eddie Allen, trumpet & flugelhorn (4, 5)
    Kyle Armbrust, viola (6, 11)
    Ru Pie Yeh, cello (6, 11)
    Kurt Muroki, double bass (6, 11)
    Nadége Foofat, Tony Finno, string arrangement (6, 11)
    Steve Elson, saxophones & clarinet (7)
    Jonathan Dreyden, organ (8)
    Kenny Wollesen, drums & percussion (9, 10)
    Mindy Kaufmann, flute (10)
    Anthony McGill, clarinet (10)
    Marc Goldberg, bassoon (10)

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Produced by Natalie Merchant
    Recorded by Eli Walker & George Cowan
    with the exception of “It’s a-Coming” & “Texas,” recorded by Paul Antonell & Eli Walker
    Recorded at The Clubhouse, Rhinebeck, NY
    Additional string & woodwind sessions recorded at Electric Lady Studios, New York, NY
    Mixed by Eli Walker at The Magic Shop, New York, NY
    Assistant engineer at The Clubhouse: Bella Blasko
    Assistant engineers at Electric Lady Studios: John Horne & Elizabeth Bauer
    Assistant engineers at The Magic Shop: Kabir Hermon & Alex Nappi
    Project coordinator: Jennifer McKinley, assisted by Summer Damon

    All songs written by Natalie Merchant
    Published by Indian Love Bride © 2013 ASCAP

    Photography by Dan Winters
    Package Design by F. Ron Miller