Leave Your Sleep

Product Description
'This album captures so many magical moments, the best times I've ever had as a musician,' declares singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant of 'Leave Your Sleep,' her ambitious, two-disc Nonesuch debut. Merchant, celebrated solo artist and one-time voice of 10,000 Maniacs, took on what could have been a daunting task: she's adapted 19th and 20th century British and American poetry - well-known and obscure works, anonymous rhymes, children's lullabies, all of it timeless material full of direct emotion - and fashioned new songs from these words. Among the poets she chose were Robert Graves, Charles Manley Hopkins, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The project, five years in the making, has clearly had a liberating effect on Merchant. Never has she sounded so free-spirited, so full of musical adventure, whether backed by small jazzy combos or elegant chamber ensembles. The tracks she's created range from exotic ('The King of China's Daughter') to earthy ('Peppery Man'), soothing ('I Saw A Ship A-Sailing') to swinging ('The Janitor's Boy'), mischievous ('It Makes A Change') to moving ('Spring and Fall'). The string arrangements are particularly stirring, recalling Joshua Rifkin's now-classic work on Judy Collins' 'Wildflowers.' There's plenty of child-like wonder, counterbalanced with grown-up sophistication. Says Merchant, 'It was an exciting, new approach for me to work with rhythm and rhyme schemes created by other writers. The poems inspired vastly different musical settings with their themes that ranged from humorous and absurd to tragic, romantic, and deeply spiritual. Over the course of three years I wrote 40 of these poem-songs and 30 were eventually recorded.' Merchant co-produced 'Leave Your Sleep' with Venezuelan musician-composer Andres Levin, a frequent collaborator of David Byrne and Arto Lindsay, and one of the creators of the eclectic Red Hot charity series. Over the course of a year's worth of exhilarating, musically shape-shifting sessions, they drew upon no less than 125 musicians from the varied worlds of, among other things, Cajun, country, jazz, chamber music, R&B, Celtic, and reggae. The revitalized Merchant explains, 'I called on old friends and approached many new musicians I only knew through admiring their work... The sessions were recorded in live ensemble workshop settings that captured pure and authentic sounds played with incredibly fresh and spontaneous energy.' 'Leave Your Sleep' is an inspired return for Merchant, her first studio album in six years - an effort long awaited by her considerable fan base. It also marks her 25th year as a uniquely successful major-label artist, one whose work has consistently enjoyed equal measures of commercial and critical success. Though she has regularly lent her talents over the last few years to the many nonprofit causes she supports, Merchant has actively returned to the concert stage in recent months, previewing material from 'Leave Your Sleep,' on a series of dates in England and continental Europe. A full U.S. tour is being planned for summer 2010.

CD 1
1. Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Experience
2. Equestrienne
3. Calico Pie
4. Bleezer's Ice-Cream
5. It Makes A Change
6. The King Of China's Daughter
7. The Dancing Bear
8. The Man In The Wilderness
9. maggie and milly and molly and may
10. If No One Ever Marries Me
11. The Sleepy Giant
12. The Peppery Man
13. The Blind Men And The Elephant

CD 2
1. Adventures Of Isabel
2. The Walloping Window Blind
3. Topsyturvey-World
4. The Janitor's Boy
5. Griselda
6. The Land Of Nod
7. Vain And Careless
8. Crying, My Little One
9. Sweet And A Lullaby
10. I Saw A Ship A-Sailing
11. Autumn Lullaby
12. Spring And Fall: to a young child
13. Indian Names

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ZCDR88/?tag=imwan-20

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Selections From The Album Leave Your Sleep

Product Description
'This album captures so many magical moments, the best times I've ever had as a musician,' declares singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant of 'Leave Your Sleep,' her ambitious, two-disc Nonesuch debut. Merchant, celebrated solo artist and one-time voice of 10,000 Maniacs, took on what could have been a daunting task: she's adapted 19th and 20th century British and American poetry - well-known and obscure works, anonymous rhymes, children's lullabies, all of it timeless material full of direct emotion - and fashioned new songs from these words. Among the poets she chose were Robert Graves, Charles Manley Hopkins, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The project, five years in the making, has clearly had a liberating effect on Merchant. Never has she sounded so free-spirited, so full of musical adventure, whether backed by small jazzy combos or elegant chamber ensembles. The tracks she's created range from exotic ('The King of China's Daughter') to earthy ('Peppery Man'), soothing ('I Saw A Ship A-Sailing') to swinging ('The Janitor's Boy'), mischievous ('It Makes A Change') to moving ('Spring and Fall'). The string arrangements are particularly stirring, recalling Joshua Rifkin's now-classic work on Judy Collins' 'Wildflowers.' There's plenty of child-like wonder, counterbalanced with grown-up sophistication. Says Merchant, 'It was an exciting, new approach for me to work with rhythm and rhyme schemes created by other writers. The poems inspired vastly different musical settings with their themes that ranged from humorous and absurd to tragic, romantic, and deeply spiritual. Over the course of three years I wrote 40 of these poem-songs and 30 were eventually recorded.' Merchant co-produced 'Leave Your Sleep' with Venezuelan musician-composer Andres Levin, a frequent collaborator of David Byrne and Arto Lindsay, and one of the creators of the eclectic Red Hot charity series. Over the course of a year's worth of exhilarating, musically shape-shifting sessions, they drew upon no less than 125 musicians from the varied worlds of, among other things, Cajun, country, jazz, chamber music, R&B, Celtic, and reggae. The revitalized Merchant explains, 'I called on old friends and approached many new musicians I only knew through admiring their work... The sessions were recorded in live ensemble workshop settings that captured pure and authentic sounds played with incredibly fresh and spontaneous energy.' 'Leave Your Sleep' is an inspired return for Merchant, her first studio album in six years - an effort long awaited by her considerable fan base. It also marks her 25th year as a uniquely successful major-label artist, one whose work has consistently enjoyed equal measures of commercial and critical success. Though she has regularly lent her talents over the last few years to the many nonprofit causes she supports, Merchant has actively returned to the concert stage in recent months, previewing material from 'Leave Your Sleep,' on a series of dates in England and continental Europe. A full U.S. tour is being planned for summer 2010.

1. Nursery Rhyme Of Innocence And Experience
2. The Man In The Wilderness
3. Equestrienne
4. The Dancing Bear
5. Calico Pie
6. The Janitor's Boy
7. The Peppery Man
8. Topsyturvey-World
9. Bleezer's Ice-Cream
10. It Makes A Change
11. Adventures Of Isabel
12. The King Of China's Daughter
13. The Sleepy Giant
14. If No One Ever Marries Me
15. maggie and milly and molly and may
16. Spring And Fall: to a young child

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002VZC9CY/?tag=imwan-20

She has really aged well, prettier then ever!

It's interesting that they're doing a "condensed" version of this album at the same time they are releasing the two-disc version. I've read nothing about this so I have no idea if it's a concept album or what, but I'm glad to see it's not an album of covers or self-covers.

She use any stolen guitar licks from other people's demos in the studio on this one?

Not familiar with that anecdote... can you add some additional info?

It's a personal one. My brother was doing some studio work for a friend in Austen, TX. Natalie Merchant was recording an album in the same studio. My brother's friend ran out of money halfway through the process and he couldn't get the tapes from the studio. When the Natalie Merchant album came out, my brother noticed a lot of the guitar licks and riffs that he had come up with for his friend's demo showed up on a number of her songs.

Which album was this?

Dunno. If the last one was nine years ago and recorded in Austen, that might very well have been it.

Now that I look at her discography, I suspect it might've been Ophelia.

Further information from the Nonesuch Records website:

Leave Your Sleep, Natalie Merchant's first studio album since 2003’s The House Carpenter’s Daughter, releases April 13, 2010, on Nonesuch Records. This release is the culmination of seven years’ research and collaboration and is, in Merchant’s words, “the most elaborate project I have ever completed or even imagined.”

A two-disc set, Leave Your Sleep is a collection of songs adapted from poems selected by Merchant including pieces by both well-known and obscure writers. Featured are works by British Victorians, early- and mid-20th century Americans and contemporary writers as well as anonymous nursery rhymes and lullabies. Among the authors included are Ogden Nash, e.e. cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Robert Graves.

In addition to a new method of lyricism, Merchant stretches out musically on Leave Your Sleep by collaborating with a broad spectrum of artists—some old friends, some she has admired from afar—including the Wynton Marsalis Quartet, Medeski Martin & Wood, members of the New York Philharmonic, The Klezmatics, Lúnasa and Hazmat Modine. “The sessions were recorded in live ensemble settings to capture a fresh and spontaneous energy,” notes Merchant. “They were some of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had making music.”

Having sold millions of records worldwide over the course of her recording career, Merchant has remained busy in the time since her last studio album by curating compilations for both 10,000 Maniacs’ Campfire Songs and her own Retrospective. Additionally, Merchant performed live to the accompaniment of Philip Glass, Dr. John, Pete Seeger, and Wynton Marsalis and collaborated with British composer Gavin Bryars as part of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works series.

Seven years of research? Is this a music album or a college thesis?

Doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

...geez...this time I was hoping Natalie would have reunited with Jennfer Turner...who I thought was a wonderful, understated, soulful guitarist...whose playing brought a lot to "Tiger Lily..." Oh well.
...would welcome any news about Jennifer Turner. I've heard her in Furslide...in Inner and I believe she played with Joseph Arthur at some point...not sure. Any updates appreciated. Thanks!

Gary
NYC

The solo on Carnival was yummy.

Best Buy has the 2-disc version on sale for $14.99 this week. Lowest price that I have seen. It is packaged in a thick hardback book packaging, akin to the 2-disc Michael Jackson This Is It album.