Natalie Merchant singing Lindean Lea.

Natalie Merchant - Spring and Fall Recording Session

THE ADVENTURES OF ISABEL

Natalie Merchant - Texas - Later... with Jools Holland - BBC Two

Natelie Merchant in Later...with Jools Hollands, great performance of Texas.

May 13th 2014

NATALIE MERCHANT-TELL ME MORE.

Documentary footage from Tigerlily recording sessions of the unreleased track. "Tell me more" 

Natalie Merchant - Lulu

Lulu-Natalie Merchant.

LULU

Words & Music Natalie Merchant / Indian Love Bride © 2013 ASCAP

They said that Hollywood was 

never gonna be the same without you, 

still, you’re gone.

How could we forget that face 

and all that silver, flickering grace 

that died with the silent age? 

When everybody knew your name; 

they all knew your name.

Born wild like a prairie flower, 

she was sown by the wind and blown for miles. 

Kansas couldn’t keep the child.

Hell-bound for the Great White Way, 

for the tawdry-bawdy burlesque stage 

and Wichita was miles and miles away.

Everybody knew your name. 

Everybody knew your name, 

they knew your name.

So you burned the candle, 

burned it at both ends. 

So love ends in scandal. 

You burned it brief; you burned it bright. 

And the light in your immortal eyes 

is the light that will never die.

Christened in straight-up gin, 

Pandora was born in Weimar Berlin 

and that was the rise before the fall!

Everybody sat in the dark, dark, black as night. 

Everybody wanted to go where the light was so bright 

and your shining face was gonna lead the way.

Homecoming like a heroine-bride 

but the honeymoon was over before you arrived 

and now they all cursed your name. 

Everybody cursed your name.

Cold winds of Gotham howled 

and the princess pawned her celluloid crown 

in the glass castle walls.

Where nobody knew your name. 

Nobody knew your name.

Natalie Merchant - Ladybird

First Single on Her New Album

Hey, Ladybird, ain’t it just the way,
the way that love grows cold and then fades away?
Now when he touches you, make no mistake,
the fire’s long gone out and the ash has blown away. You don’t know how to leave and you don’t know where to fly.
You don’t know what you feel
but you know it’s not satisfied today.

So many little ones, so many mouths,
you’ve got a lot to feed and you know you don’t know how.
Making the best of it, somehow you’re making do,
making the best of the days that you stay 
and you wait in this cage they made for you.You don’t know how to leave
and you don’t know where to fly.
You’ve got a lot of things to lose, 
so you’ve got a lot of things to hide.
You know you don’t believe
but you know you’ve got to try today.

You know the sweetest wine, it’s a witches’ brew,
pours like honey down and then burns a hole in you.
Yeah, you may think you’re done but you’re never through
spitting out the bitterness to get the little sweetness you do.You don’t know how to leave
and you don’t know where to fly.
You’ve got a lot of things to lose, 
so you’ve got a lot of things to hide.
You don’t know what you feel
but you know it’s not satisfied.
You know you don’t believe
but you know you’ve got to try today.Feel the winter bitterness; 
it’s heavy on the wind,
coming back again.

Maybe it’s time to fly, time to fly away! 
When you gonna spread your wings and fly? When you gonna fly away? When you gonna fly away?

Merchant Performs Children's Concert

On January 28th Natalie Merchant gave a free concert for over 2600 school children at The Smith Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a video of highlights from the show.

THE GREAT NATALIE MERCHANT IS BACK !!!

GIVING UP EVERITHING.

Giving up everything
My hungry ghost of hopefulness
Giving up everything
Not haunted by wanting this

Giving up everything
The fortune I was saving
Giving up everything
I mercy-killed my craving

Giving up everything
I've opened up my eyes for this
Giving up everything
See the cold magnificent emptiness

Give what I want for how it is
The stone inside for the bitterness
For sweetness at the core of it

Giving up everything
The master plan, the scheming
Giving up everything
My cursed search for meaning

Giving up everything
The compass and the map I was reading
The hinterlands I'm leaving
I'm finally leaving behind

Giving up everything
The big to-do, the hullabaloo
Talk of hope for some twisted truth
For the everlasting ache of it

No longer sleep, not chained to it
No gate, no guard, no keeper
No guru, master, teacher
See the slow, see the faces
Dissolve to black, no traces

SHELTER CONCERT DOCUMENTARY INSPIRED BY ONE BILLION RISING 2013

“On February 14th, 2013 I attended a local One Billion Rising event in the Hudson Valley, where I’ve lived for 25 years. That day I was confronted by 14 life-sized cardboard female figures, each with a name of a woman, the town where she had lived and the date on which she was murdered by her intimate partner. Fourteen women murdered in ten years, where was the public outcry? Where was the grieving? One of the victims had been a neighbor of mine but I had not been aware of her death. I had passed her house for months while driving my daughter to school. My blood chilled. How could I be a member of this community in good standing and not respond to this outrage. As the day progressed, I met directors of local shelters, prosecutors, police officers and survivors. I began to envision a follow-up event in which all these phenomenal advocates could be recognized for their work. I wanted to help them present to a larger audience this little understood and rarely discussed public health crisis in our region, in our world that is Domestic Violence. The benefit concert that resulted was by far the most emotional of my 30-year career; thankfully it was captured on film. I am so grateful to Eve Ensler and One Billion Rising for opening my eyes and inspiring me to use my voice to protest violence against women and children.” -Natalie Merchant,In this short film directed by musician-activist Natalie Merchant, a group of women living in the Mid-Hudson region of New York State respond to the crisis of domestic violence in their community with compassion and creativity. Musicians, advocates, criminal prosecutors, victims and survivors all take to the stage, illuminating the darkness surrounding this public health epidemic. Filmed on June 2, 2013 at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College. All proceeds generated by this concert were donated to domestic violence shelters: Grace Smith House Poughkeepsie, NY and The Washbourne House, Kingston, NY.