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Natalie Merchant
Merchant in 1984
Background information
Birth name	Natalie Anne Merchant
Born	October 26, 1963 (1963-10-26) (age 46) Jamestown, New York, USA
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, keyboard, piano
Years active	1981 – present
Labels	Elektra Records Myth America Records Nonesuch Records
Associated acts	10,000 Maniacs
Website	NatalieMerchant.com

Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963 in Jamestown, New York, USA) is a professional musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.

Family

Natalie was born the third of four children of Anthony and Ann Merchant. Her paternal surname Merchant is of Sicilian origin and was originally "Mercante" before being Anglicised. The name O'Shea is on her maternal side; they are of Irish extraction.

As a child, her mother listened to music (Beatles, Al Green, Aretha Franklin)^[1] and encouraged her children to study music, but she wouldn't allow TV after Natalie was 12. "I was taken to the symphony a lot because my mother loved classical music. But I was dragged to see Styx when I was 12. We had to drive 100 miles to Buffalo, New York. Someone threw up next to me and people were smoking pot. It was terrifying. I remember Styx had a white piano which rose out of the stage. It was awe-inspiring and inspirational."^[2] "She [her mother] had show tunes, she had the soundtrack from West Side Story and South Pacific. And then eventually... she'd always liked classical music and then she married a jazz musician, so that's the kind of music I was into. I never really had friends who sat around and listened to the stereo and said 'hey, listen to this one', so I'd never even heard of who Bob Dylan was until I was 18."^[3] During 1988–1989, Natalie claimed she still didn't have a TV: "I grew up in a house where no one watched the news on television and no one read the paper. I've been discovering these things as I get older, and the news has affected me more than it ever has before."^[4] Her mother raised Natalie and her siblings alone, as Natalie's parents divorced in 1972. Her mother later remarried.^[1]

Natalie is married to Daniel de la Calle and has a daughter. She likes gardening and painting.^[5] Some paintings can be seen at her official website.

She has been a vegetarian since 1980^[6], save for the duration of her pregnancy when she temporarily resumed eating meat.^[7] She once said: "The '60s aesthetic has never really appealed to me, the tie-dyed Deadhead running barefoot through the forest on LSD. I don't think that's really me. But I've been a vegetarian for 17 years and I consider myself an environmentalist inasmuch as I can be, considering the job that I have. I prefer living in the countryside rather than the city; I find it more sane and sustaining for myself."^[8]

Career

Merchant was lead singer and primary lyricist for the band 10,000 Maniacs, joining in its infancy in 1981 while she was a student at Jamestown Community College.

Tigerlily (1995)

Merchant has said in interviews that after her split with 10,000 Maniacs she was so eager to begin writing her own material that she went home that very day and composed the song “I May Know The Word,” which was originally meant to appear on the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks movie, Philadelphia. The song was eventually cut from the soundtrack, but it would go on to appear on Merchant’s debut solo album, Tigerlily, which was released on the Elektra label in 1995. Merchant chose to name the album Tigerlily as she felt it captured the feel of the album, which she described as both “fierce” and “delicate.”

The third song on the album, "Beloved Wife", was featured as the first song in the trailer for the movie Message in a Bottle.

Seeking creative control, Merchant chose to fund Tigerlily herself, refusing the advance from the record company. She also wanted to work with a core-group of young musicians who she felt would be enthusiastic about the music. The group would consist of guitarist Jennifer Turner, bassist Barrie Maguire, and former-Wallflower and eventual boyfriend to Merchant, Peter Yanowitz, who played drums on the album and who continued to do so with Merchant until their abrupt split in 2000.

Tigerlily was a critical and commercial success, spawning her first top-ten hit in the single "Carnival", and achieving top-forty success with subsequent singles "Wonder" and "Jealousy". The album would go on to sell over 5 million copies, and continues to be Merchant’s most successful album to date. Merchant did extensive touring for the album and made numerous television appearances, including performances on SNL, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and all late-night talk shows. The media's immediate and critical impact on culture and cultural icons was of particular interest to Merchant. In "River", a song from Tigerlily, Merchant defends River Phoenix as she castigates the media for systematically dissecting the child actor after his death. Much of their emphasis was on Phoenix' suspected drug-using lifestyle. In "River," Merchant asks, “Why don’t you let him be / Give his mother and father peace.” Merchant’s anger is later replaced with quiet reflection, asking, “It was such a nightmare raving, ‘How could we save him from himself?’” ^[9]

Ophelia (1998–1999)

Three years passed before Merchant would release her second solo effort, Ophelia. While Tigerlily contained a lot of sparse instrumentation, the music on Ophelia featured plenty of lush symphonic arrangements composed and conducted by British composer Gavin Bryars. Merchant treated the recording of Ophelia as a series of workshops, where she would invite various musicians she had met over the years into her home studio to collaborate and record. In the end, 30 different musicians featured on the album, among them Brand New Heavies frontwoman N'Dea Davenport (with whom she duets on the song Break Your Heart), famed trumpet player Chris Botti, and the husband and wife duo, Don and Karen Perris, from the band The Innocence Mission.

While Ophelia is not a concept record in the traditional sense, the album-cycle saw Merchant flexing her creative muscles in surprising ways. The name of the album and the title track are a literary reference to Shakespeare's Ophelia, who in the play Hamlet becomes mad and eventually commits suicide when Hamlet remains non-committal and lost in himself. Merchant's Ophelia describes a series of women throughout time—women who dared question the patriarchal status quo and who were often castigated for doing so—and is a cry for women's rights and for more understanding of female archetypes beyond the scope of the "mother" and the "whore", both of which severely limit women and attempt to turn them into little more than chattel. The portrayal of the women in the song is a tribute to the non-traditional, the "too smart for her own good" type of woman who is often misunderstood by society. As a lyric to the title song cries: "Your common sense, your best defense, was wasted and in vain!" A reflection of women driven mad by social limitations, Natalie's tribute described Ophelia as being at once a "novice carmelite," a "suffragette," a "circus queen," a "demigoddess" and a "mafia courtesan." The album sleeve saw Merchant pictured in colorful and ornate costumes as each of these different characters. As a companion to the album, she also released a film where she portrays each of these different characters, with voice-overs used for the "novice carmelite," the "sweetheart" and the "courtesan" as they are Latin, German and Italian, respectively.

The first single off the album was a happy and uncharacteristically simple song called "Kind and Generous", which received massive airplay on VH1 and which solidified Merchant's role as a bona fide solo artist. That summer, Sarah Maclachlan invited Merchant to co-headline the year's biggest music festival with her, Lilith Fair. The exposure from the tour helped the album reach Platinum status in just under a year, with subsequent singles "Break Your Heart" and "Life is Sweet" receiving moderate airplay on adult contemporary stations. No video was filmed for the latter, however, with a clip from Merchant's appearance on VH1's Storytellers being used instead. She would also go on to appear on PBS' Sessions at West 54th and VH1's Hard Rock Live before the year's end.

The Ophelia tour ended in 1999 with the final few shows being performed and recorded on Broadway. The performance would be released as the album Natalie Merchant: Live in Concert with a companion video of the same name. The performance was notable in that it featured numerous covers including songs by David Bowie, Neil Young, and the Breton-Welsh singer-songwriter Katell Keineg.

American Folk Music Tour (2000)

In 2000, Merchant embarked on a folk tour in the states with many shows being supported by alt-country band Wilco.

Motherland (2001)

Merchant's next studio album on the Elektra label was Motherland, released in 2001. Motherland saw Merchant at her most experimental musically. Motherland achieved Gold on the Billboard charts after debuting at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 and No. 13 on the Top Internet Albums of 2001, respectively. Rolling Stone favored this album with 3½ stars, and also noticed a difference in Merchant's voice, which was more deep and gritty than her previous albums. Singles that were released from Motherland were Just Can't Last, Build a Levee and Tell Yourself.

Merchant embarked on a year and a half world tour to promote Motherland. The first leg of the tour started in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 17, 2001, trekking all over the United States, and then heading to Europe with some special acoustic shows in Europe. Merchant also participated in the Rock am Ring Festival and Rock im Park in 2002. In the summer of 2002, she was paired with Chris Isaak and both played at stadiums and arenas.

The House Carpenter's Daughter (2003)

Merchant's next studio album, The House Carpenter's Daughter, was released in September 2003 on her own label, Myth America Records. To date this has been the only release on Myth America.

"Leave Your Sleep" (2010)

In October 2009, the official websites of Nonesuch Records and Natalie Merchant announced that she had signed with the label. On March 1, 2009, Natalie Merchant has posted on her website that "Leave Your Sleep" will be released as either a 1 CD (Selections from the album, "Leave Your Sleep") or a 2 CD set, and will be available for purchase on April 13, 2010.

Discography

With 10,000 Maniacs

• Human Conflict Number Five (1982)
• Secrets of the I Ching (1983)
• The Wishing Chair (1985)
• In My Tribe (1987)
• Blind Man's Zoo (1989)
• Hope Chest: The Fredonia Recordings 1982-1983 (1990)
• Our Time in Eden (1992)
• MTV Unplugged (1993)
• Campfire Songs: The Popular, Obscure and Unknown Recordings (2004)

Solo

See: Natalie Merchant discography

Filmography

Films

Television

See also

• Natalie Merchant albums
• Natalie Merchant songs

References

External links

• Official website
• Natalie Merchant at the Ectophile's Guide to Good Music
• Natalie Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
• Natalie Merchant discography at MusicBrainz
• Natalie Merchant on Whole Wheat Radio
• Launch's page on Merchant

From Wikiquote

I know that it will hurt
I know that it will break your heart
the way things are
and the way they've been...

Natalie Merchant (born 26 October 1963) American singer, song-writer, musician and poet who first gained fame in the group 10,000 Maniacs which she co-founded in 1981.

Sourced

There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear.

• There is one tradition in America I am proud to inherit. It is our first freedom and the truest expression of our Americanism: the ability to dissent without fear. It is our right to utter the words, "I disagree." We must feel at liberty to speak those words to our neighbors, our clergy, our educators, our news media, our lawmakers and, above all, to the one among us we elect President.
  • The Nation (15 July 1991)

• I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10. Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.
  • Orlando Sentinel (6 November 1992)

• My drug period was between the age of 17 and 18. That was a time when I was experimenting with a lot of things, I was experimenting with sleep deprivation, fasting. The longest fast I ever did was 12 days. You go that long without food and you hallucinate. I would take this powder made out of guarana seed, my friend Mary would bake it up like cocoa in muffins and leave them on my doorstep. My drinking period was when I was 13, 14. Drugs fascinated me for a short period of time but not any more. A glass of wine puts me in a weird enough state.
  • NME (1 July 1995)

The Wishing Chair (1985)

• if I could calm or restrain you
  for the sake of pity
  save the pistol
  save the cynic's tongue
  save the cool white stare
  treat me to an honest face sometime
  • "Scorpio Rising"

In My Tribe (1987)

What's The Matter Here?

• I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses
  he's their kid I stay out of it,
  but who gave you the right to do this?

• threats like, "if you don't mind I will beat on your behind"
  "slap you, slap you silly" made me say,
  "o, what's the matter here?"

City of Angels

• heaven, is this heaven where we are?

• see them walking, if you dare
  if you call that walking
  stumble, stagger, fall and drag themselves
  along the streets of heaven

• where is the halo
  that should glow 'round your face
  and where are the wings that
  should grow from your shoulder blades?

• these sobering sights I've seen
  in the City of Angels
  have all been one rude awakening
  that was due to me
  in this city of fallen angels

Like The Weather

• the color of the sky as far as I can see is coal gray
  lift my head from the pillow and then fall again
  with a shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather
  a quiver in my lips as if I might cry

• what a cold and rainy day
  where on earth is the sun hid away?

Don't Talk

• don't talk, I will listen
  don't talk, you keep your distance
  I'd rather hear some truth tonight
  than entertain your lies

• talk, talk, talk about it
  you talk as if you care
  but when your talk is over
  tilt that bottle in the air
  tossing back more than your share

Hey Jack Kerouac

• hey Jack Kerouac
  I think of your mother
  and the tears she cried, she cried for none other
  than her little boy lost in our little world that hated
  and that dared to drag him down
  her little boy courageous
  who chose his words from mouths of
  babes got lost in the wood
  hip flask slinging madman, steaming cafe flirts
  they all spoke through you

• hey Jack
  now for the tricky part
  when you were the brightest star
  who were the shadows?
  of the San Francisco beat boys
  you were the favorite
  now they sit and rattle their bones
  and think of their blood stoned days

Blind Man's Zoo (1989)

trouble me
disturb me with all your cares and you worries...

Trouble Me

• trouble me
  disturb me with all your cares and you worries
  trouble me
  on the days when you feel spent

• speak to me
  don't mislead me, the calm I feel means a storm is swelling
  there's no telling where it starts or how it ends

• let me
  have a look inside these eyes while I'm learning
  please don't hide them just because of tears

Our Time In Eden (1992)

These Are Days

• these are days you'll remember

• you'll know it's true, that you are blessed and lucky
  it's true, that you are touched by something
  that will grow and bloom in you

• these days you might feel a shaft of light
  make its way across your face
  and when you do
  you'll know how it was meant to be
  see the signs and know their meaning

Tigerlily (1995)

Carnival

• I've walked these streets
  in the mad house asylum
  they can be
  where a wild eyed misfit prophet
  on a traffic island stopped
  and he raved of saving me

• have I been blind
  have I been lost
  inside myself and
  my own mind
  hypnotized
  mesmerized
  by what my eyes have seen?

Wonder

I'm a challenge to your balance
I'm over your heads
how I confound you and astound you...

• doctors have come from distant cities
  just to see me
  stand over my bed
  disbelieving what they're seeing
  they say I must be one of the wonders
  of god's own creation
  and as far as they can see they can offer
  no explanation

• newspapers ask intimate questions
  want confessions
  they reach into my head
  to steal the glory of my story

• people see me
  I'm a challenge to your balance
  I'm over your heads
  how I confound you and astound you

• o, I believe
  fate smiled and destiny
  laughed as she came to my cradle
  know this child will be able
  laughed as she came to my mother
  know this child will not suffer
  laughed as my body she lifted
  know this child will be gifted
  with love, with patience and with faith
  she'll make her way

Ophelia (1998)

Ophelia

Ophelia's mind went wandering
you'd wonder where she'd gone
through secret doors
down corridors
she'd wander them alone...

• Ophelia was a bride of god
  a novice Carmelite
  in sister cells the cloister bells
  tolled on her wedding night

• Ophelia was a circus queen
  the female cannonball
  projected through five flaming hoops
  to wild and shocked applause...

• Ophelia was a cyclone, tempest
  a god damned hurricane
  your common sense
  your best defense
  lay wasted and in vain

• Ophelia's mind went wandering
  you'd wonder where she'd gone
  through secret doors
  down corridors
  she'd wander them alone

Break Your Heart

• people struggle, people fight
  for the simple pleasures in their lives
  but trouble comes from everywhere
  it's a little more than you can bear

• I know that it will hurt
  I know that it will break your heart
  the way things are
  and the way they've been
  and the way they've always been

• people ruthless, people cruel
  see the damage that some people do
  full of hatred, full of pride
  it's enough to make you lose your mind

• don't spread the discontent
  don't spread the lies
  don't make the same mistakes
  with your own life

My Skin

• take a look at my body
  look at my hands
  there's so much here
  that I don't understand

• your face saving promises
  whispered like prayers
  I don't need them

• contempt loves the silence
  it thrives in the dark
  with fine winding tendrils
  that strangle the heart
  they say that promises
  sweeten the blow
  but I don't need them
  no, I don't need them

• o, I need
  the darkness
  the sweetness
  the sadness
  the weakness
  I need this

• I need
  a lullaby
  a kiss goodnight
  angel sweet
  love of my life
  o, I need this

Kind & Generous

• you've been so kind and generous
  I don't know how you keep on giving
  for your kindness I'm in debt to you
  for your selflessness, my admiration
  and for everything you've done
  you know I'm bound...
  I'm bound to thank you for it

• I want to thank you
  for so many gifts
  you gave with love and tenderness
  I want to thank you
  I want to thank you
  for your generosity
  the love and the honesty
  that you gave me

Life Is Sweet

I tell you life is sweet
in spite of the misery
there's so much more...

• they told you life is hard
  it's misery from the start
  it's dull and slow and painful
  I tell you life is sweet
  in spite of the misery
  there's so much more
  be grateful

• who do you believe?
  who will you listen to
  who will it be?
  it's high time that you decide
  in your own mind

Motherland (2001)

Motherland

• where in hell can you go
  far from the things that you know
  far from the sprawl of concrete
  that keeps crawling its way
  about 1,000 miles a day?

• take one last look behind
  commit this to memory and mind
  don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place
  when you leave
  keep your heart off your sleeve

• motherland cradle me
  close my eyes
  lullaby me to sleep
  keep me safe
  lie with me
  stay beside me
  don't go, don't you go

The Worst Thing

• once I could love, I could trust, I could not doubt
  but that was just about the worst thing that I could do
  it was just about the worst thing that I could do

• once I was open, could hope, I had no doubt
  but that was the worst thing that I could do

• once I came close to that most elusive fire
  burning with hopeless love and desire
  but it was just about the worst thing that I could do
  it was just about the worst thing I could do

Henry Darger

• who'll save the poor little girl?
  oh, Henry...
  who'll tell the story of her?
  Henry Darger

• who will draw the calvary in
  risk his very own precious skin
  to make our Angelinia a free and peaceful land again?
  Henry
  who'll love a poor orphan child?
  Henry Darger

Quotes from NatalieMerchant.com

• It’s pretty obvious to everyone that the revolution has happened. The People can now easily cut out a hoard of middlemen (record companies, radio stations, music press and retail shops). With a series of computer strokes they can find the music they want to hear, become informed about the musicians who make it, find other people who share their interest and ultimately either buy, trade or steal that coveted sound.

• After spending nearly 20 years contracted to a major label, I have mixed feelings about their demise. These companies have profited immensely from your insatiable desire for listening and helped musicians for several decades to reach you. They grew fat and excessive. They exploited and they monopolized. They edited and censured. They’ve been rapidly loosing their means of production, distribution and promotion to the internet. They have been economizing by dropping artists, cutting staff and folding into one another but they can’t keep up with the pace of disintegration. You might not have ever heard my name if Elektra Records hadn’t made me one of their artists for hire. I’m both grateful and resentful and you probably are too.

• I don’t listen to anything on the radio but NPR and occasional oldies programs. I can’t comment on the content or format of most commercial radio but I have read the statistics about the step-by-step deregulation of FCC rules that has allowed monopolies like Clear Channel to buy up massive shares of the airwaves. This has damaged our business (music) and our culture (American). The internet is offering bold alternatives but a transistor radio is only $25.00 and not everyone is hooked up through a computer and high speed connection.

• I don’t want to overdo discussing my experience of motherhood, its too private and profound to parade around. I will say that carrying a child, giving birth to a child and raising that child up has made me feel more engaged and connected to others. I have a greater understanding of people (living past & present). We all begin so pure, so innocent and so hungry for physical and emotional comfort. It’s so important that every baby be generously cherished, fed and comforted. I can see now how withholding these essentials can do irreparable damage. Now (post-baby) when I encounter a sad or aggressive character, I wonder what the first three years of his or her life were like. Imaging them alone, crying in their cribs has given me much more compassion.

• For the time being I am enjoying my chance to enjoy civilian life off the road. If I combined all the months that I have lived out of a van or tour bus it would amount to twelve solid years. That would be twelve years of driving or flying an average of 100 to 400 miles per day and sleeping in a different city every night. It was a very unique lifestyle that I adapted to and even enjoyed with it’s surreal pace. It’s also a lifestyle that can take a toll on the body and relationships with the people that you are constantly leaving behind.

• I think many people have been made curious about Henry Darger because of the song on my album Motherland. Henry Darger (1892-1973) was the author and illustrator of what could possibly be the longest unfinished fictional work of all time. His towering hand-bound manuscript of 17,000 pages was found in this obscure retired hospital janitor’s apartment after his death. Henry worked in obsessed isolation for six decades on his saga entitled, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

• I saw my first Henry Darger collage/paintings in the early 1980’s when the tale of Henry’s life was just emerging through rumor and scattered fragments of his book. He lived and died a recluse in Chicago where no one knew of his writings or paintings. There was a folk art gallery in New Orleans that had acquired a small pile of Realms of the Unreal illustrations. I was on tour with REM at the time, Michael Stipe and I visited the gallery where we had a first look at these images of seven little horrified girls pursued by a purple and orange winged cats or evil professors on horseback or resting peacefully under giant sunflowers. I was completely captivated and intrigued.

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Natalie Merchant

• NatalieMerchant.com (official site)
• Natalie Merchant at the Ectophile's Guide to Good Music
• Natalie Merchant at the Internet Movie Database
• Natalie Merchant 119 (fan site)
• Natalie Merchant Online (fan site)