Natalie Merchant - Live in Concert

With just a pair of CDs--Tigerlily and Ophelia--in her solo-career arsenal, Natalie Merchant isn't an artist you'd expect to release a live album. Perhaps Merchant is fond of playing live, which shows throughout these 11 tracks despite her relaxed, unflappable vocal delivery. The former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman leads an amped "Wonder" and then coos into "San Andreas Fault"; the latter is expansive and dramatic, a direction Merchant is exploring that's alternately off-putting and charming. Merchant's version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" is even more philosophical and meditative. Add to that a languid take on Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" and you have a full-scale portrait of Merchant's mindset. The ever-somber music is limited in its emotional scope, but there are few performers in mainstream pop who excel more in that range. --Andrew Bartlett Amazon.com

Natalie Merchant Is A Special Recording Artist Who Makes Her Listeners Feel Likewise

December 7, 2007

Natalie Merchant cut her teeth in the big time many years ago as front vocalist for a quirky. esoteric, almost early punk band rather shockingly
presented as the 10,000 Maniacs. My memory of when they first came out would suggest to me that it was plausible that in 2008 she would be down in Florida playing cards all day. No such thing. I just looked at her bio and today she is young enough to refine and improve her immaculate and exhorbitantly pleasing and successful stay in the music business until the cows come home. I have always adored Natalie's earthy and psychologically pulling vocals on such entries as Carnival (Her best, I think), Wonder and Ophelia- all represented on this CD. One thing I have never found out about Natalie's singing, she being from upstate New York, what is that accent I hear. To me it appears to be somewhat European in tone and inflection. I am not objecting because whatever it is it is very alluring and distinctive. Natalie joins the club of being distinctive as a recording artist that is win win with the fans. She also comes across like someone you would meet in Soho or the East Village snapping pictures of whatever she felt was relevant, sort of like a small statured Suzanne Vega who did that on the Lower East Side and made her ulimate crafted work into a persona and a good album. I say buy this CD and actually get in on Natalie's career which I think will go to the moon unless she gets off the spaceship of her own volition before it arrives. Natalie plies her trade from the perspective of being a classically trained performer and a distinctive and special recording artist. She is not a young, coltish Julie Newmar but unlike a few of the other female performers does not need any of that contrived appearance to win us over.

jay adler music critic December 8, 2008

I really like this CD

I have been playing songs from this CD a lot lately. I am not particularly eloquent but I want to say, I really like it. Natalie Merchant is singing with a great deal of passion and imagination.

I'm not going to go through the songs in order. Although "Wonder" is a very good song. My husband survived a very rare kidney disease in childhood that he 'should not' have. He got what was supposed to be a harmless rash called henoch-schonlein purpura, after having the chicken pox. One % of the time, that progresses to end-stage renal failure, which he had at 19. he got sick initially at age 5 and spent 4 months in the hospital.

His family was very supportive and he ended up getting a transplant in Buffalo, where his family is from, just before the blizzard of 1977. he had been on dialysis for about 18 months, from May of 1975 to December 1976.

He was in the hospital when Paul Simon came out on SNL wearing that turkey suit. in a digression, he and I both agree that Paul Simon seems to have lost his sense of humor lately, but Tim remembers that appearance as making his time in the hospital easier.

I have struggled with mental illness for a long time and I'm now in some kind of remission, we think. that is I am much improved, although I still need medication and treatment. for that reason, the song Ophelia means a lot to me. when I was very young, my parents put on me the demand to be many things to many people and part of recovery is getting out of that dynamic, which I have managed to do using therapy and modern communication technology. that is a statement that although times change, human thoughts and passions really don't. the song Ophelia draws on Shakespeare for inspiration, and possibly other sources.

then there is the space oddity song. I like that song a lot and this cover of it. I have an interest in astronomy and I used that song to help with walking, having some disability issues. it reminds me of the need to balance things carefully. although unlike in the song, every time I try it I have another chance to get it right.

beloved wife is a touching and very meaningful tribute to someone who has lost a loved one and really has never gotten over it, b/c it is too significant to be - moved past.

I have had that situation for reasons different from the song.

and again this goes back to my interest in astronomy. when I was young, I had one experience with traumatic death in which I lost a close friend. but there had been another, earlier one where I identified very much with someone who had died.

I was told by a physicist friend to use the concept of binary star systems to deal with this.

from wikipedia:

An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. The term is derived from the ancient Greek noun (ékleipsis), from verb (ekleíp), "I cease to exist," a combination of prefix (ek-), from preposition, (ek, ex), "out," and of verb (leíp), "I am absent". When an eclipse occurs within a stellar system, such as the Solar System, it forms a type of syzygy--the alignment of three or more celestial bodies in the same gravitational system along a straight line.

The term eclipse is most often used to describe either a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth's surface, or a lunar eclipse, when the Moon moves into the shadow of Earth. However, it can also refer to such events beyond the Earth-Moon system: for example, a planet moving into the shadow cast by one of its moons, a moon passing into the shadow cast by its parent planet, or a moon passing into the shadow of another moon. A binary star system can also produce eclipses if the plane of their orbit intersects the position of the observer.

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as a teenager, I had interactions with an unusual person who cared a lot about both physics and people. and he told me it is possible to lose two people and yet only be able to discuss one of the losses. he said it was quite likely the losses would eclipse each other in my memory. think of it as a binary star system, he said.


my friend died in tragic circumstances but the earlier loss was of a girl named Maryanne, whose death was discussed by no one, it seemed.

the gulf of araby is a very moving song about trying to reach a loved one or someone else who is beyond reach, and I guess how fantasies come in to try to bridge the gap. per the above, I can relate to this although I am not sure I truly understand it.

the other songs are good too. San Andreas Fault reminds me that what looks secure may not be, especially if it is not built on a firm foundation. at least that is a lesson I have had to learn.

and then there is 'seven years.' I get something different from that song than what it is intended for. it has been seven years since 9/11 and I have been working hard to - do things that help and improve the positive energy in this world. I hope I have been helpful.

This is a great CD with a lot of passion and emotion. also good songs too :) - that always helps. and it is not overproduced either. I get a feeling of communication, that is, this is an artist who understands there are real people on the receiving end. September 4, 2008

We need a live release from the Jennifer Turner era!

For those of us who got introduced to Natalie thru Tigerlily, this live album comes up, regrettably, way short. The guitar playing is just weak. We need a live release from the Jennifer Turner era (who played on Tigerlily). She's one of the greatest guitarists of the nineties! August 8, 2007

Bit One Dimensional

Having travelled in reverse through Natalie's catalogue, I rate this as mediocre, somewhat lacking in vibe. I suspect the set list of her many performances would throw up a more varied bunch than what we have here. This leads to the question, why was this performance chosen as the one to commemorate to disc? Bowie's, 'Space Oddity' is given memorable treatmen, and Neil Young's,'After the Gold Rush' is adequate. Other reviewers have noted the absence of 'Ophelia' songs, and that's a regret I share. I can't detect a single cover that even equals its studio effort.Favourites, 'Gun Shy' and,'san Andreas Fault'. The overall evening seems somewhat dour,too slow-paced for mine, though Natalie seems in fine voice. January 3, 2007

Beautiful music, wonderful showcase for her voice

I bought this disc as a fan of Natalie Merchant,thinking it would be a nice addition to my collection. I was surprised - this recording is a collection by itself. Merchant's voice is as warm as caramel, and as sweet too. The music is at its best here. This has become a particular favorite of mine.

Specially delightful are Seven Years and Dust Bowl. The album singles Wonder and Carnival differ from the original release by being better. The live atmosphere creates a more personal experiece.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! November 11, 2006

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