New Natalie Merchant!

Hi Clay - I almost sent you an email after watching the videos on her site this afternoon. I believe you attended her performance at Shaker Meeting Hall. Watching the video of her at Shaker reminded me of you.

thanks Chris, I hadn't thought to peruse the videos.

Yes, did attend one of the two sessions at the Shaker Meeting House.
it was amazing.

clay

... but thanks to your suggestion been enjoying Natalie Marchant via Spotify today.

Eloise

Well, in my opinion, Gordon Holt was more correct than not about the inverse correlation between sonics and performance.

Fortunately Chris has two separate subforums - one for high def downloads, and another for music in general.

cheers,
clay

Sounds great, thanks for the link Clay. I'll have to get her new album.

Hello!

We are pleased to announce the following upcoming performances:

April 12 The NY Society for Ethical Culture, New York, NY
April 13 The NY Society for Ethical Culture, New York, NY
April 14 Barnes & Noble, Union Square, New York, NY
April 20 Harold Williams Auditorium at The Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA
April 22 The Aratani Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
April 24 Rubloff Auditorium at The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
April 25 E-Town at the Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO
April 28 The Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA
April 30 Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
May 1 PEN World Voices Festival, New York, NY

Please see the website calendar for more details and ticket information (http://www.nataliemerchant.com/calendar).

You may go to the website to listen to additional NEW music from Leave Your Sleep (http://www.nataliemerchant.com/l/leave-your-sleep) and watch a short documentary about Natalie and the new album (http://www.nataliemerchant.com/w/leave-your-sleep/leave-your-sleep-epk).

You might also be interested in listening to this online interview with Granta Magazine (http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/Interview-Natalie-Merchant) and watching this performance Natalie gave for the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/celticconnections/2010/artists/natal...).

Finally, look for Natalie's performance at TED.com (www.ted.com) to air on April 9th!

A 2010 US nationwide summer tour to be announced soon!

Great artist. Can't wait to hear this new album. Thanks for letting us know!

thanks Chris,

I'll be ordering tix in the morning for NYC!

cheers,
clay

Just received my copy of Natalie's new album. I got the deluxe 2 CD version with an autographed photo of Natalie. Plus, it arrived a day before the official release. I'm ripping it to my NAS right now :~)

may be interested in the following dates :

May 05/22/10 London, UK London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
May 05/24/10 Salford, Manchester Manchester Lowry
May 05/25/10 Gateshead, UK Gateshead Sage
May 05/26/10 Edinburgh, Scotland Edinburgh Usher Hall
May 05/28/10 Birmingham, UK Birmingham Symphony Hall
May 05/29/10 Bristol, UK Bristol Colston Hall
May 05/30/10 Brighton, UK Brighton Dome
Jun 06/01/10 Dublin, Ireland The Helix - Mahony Hall

If anyone is going to the Brighton gig - I'll see you there!

Hope it sounds as wonderful as the performance tonight.

Just returned from listening to Natalie and over a dozen musicians performing a dozen or so pieces from the new 'album', and 5 more from her previous catalog, including Motherland, Break Your Heart, Carnival, and two from House Carpenter's Daughter - Owensboro (I believe) and Weeping Pilgrim.

The new pieces are poems (from rather unknown poets for the most part) set to music by Natalie & team, all choreographed in a folksy style, albeit different one from another.

A great evening, in a relatively intimate venue - 800 seats or so Natalie said.

The most significant nit is that Natalie's voice was amplified.

A few of the songs performed tonight can be found here:

http://www.ted.com/talks/natalie_merchant_sings_old_poems_to_life.html

Next up are the Cowboy Junkies next Thursday (4/22), in the same venue - Concert Hall of the Society for Ethical Culture in NYC's upper west side.

enjoy,

clay

Wow, thanks judge !

I did not know of this artist, I'll sure play catch-up.

Elp

This "Album" (Natalie's words, not mine, "I refuse to call it a CD") is absolutely AMAZING!!

Actually, she referred to it as her 'project'.

A must have - get the 2CD version - and don't forget to read the "80 page booklet", in "7 point font".

Clay

ELP, as for playing 'catchup', pick up this one and Tiger Lily, and depending on which one you prefer, pick up the next closest in production and work your way to the other end (of the spectrum), i.e. if you prefer Leave Your Sleep, go with House Carpenter's Daughter next, and if Tiger Lily, check out Ophelia.

Chris is a big fan of Motherland, so you could just start in the middle!

"Chris is a big fan of Motherland, so you could just start in the middle!"

Got that right :~)

The title track to Motherland sounds wonderful. The album is HDCD as well. Natalie's voice is super rich on this album.

If you get Tigerlily I highly recommend the Mobile Fidelity version http://www.mofi.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=123&idcategory=0

I have a 24/96 DVDA of Tigerlily. I'll have to listen to the MoFi version.

Thanks

Chris,

I thought of you when she sang this very song - Motherland - after coming back out for the encore and saying "now we're gonna sing some older songs".

Below is an article about this "project".

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/arts/music/18merchant.html

Clay

Thanks for the link Clay. Interesting article.

By the way, I don't believe the DVD-A of Tigerlily has a native stereo mix. DVDAExplorer will create a downmix that I don't think sounds good at all.

I finally remembered to visit the TED link above. Here is the embedded video.

I just posted a couple photos of the new Natalie album on the iPad remote control screen using PlugPlayer. It's really cool to have such large album art. Here's a link.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/iPad-It#comment-42557

He,

So I have started with Tigerlily so far.

Sorry Chris, I did not go for the MoFi version, I just could not wait anymore (and starting to get nervous about my cds having to take the plane each time).

This is quite good, can't wait to get the latest album (not cd) and compare.

Elp

Probably the best CD I've bought this year.
I've got all her CD's and not a duff one in the collection.