Natalie Merchant Releases 'Motherland'

11/05/2001 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Kastle

(11/5/01, 4 p.m. ET) -- Natalie Merchant's latest effort, Motherland, arrives in stores Tuesday (November 6). This is her first album of new recordings since 1997's Ophelia, and it features legendary gospel singer Mavis Staples on two songs: "Saint Judas" and "Build A Levee."

Merchant told LAUNCH about the meaning of the songs and the album as a whole. "The songs...already have a lot of nuances, a lot of layers of meaning. So it's difficult for me to just say, 'It's a song about....' But the album addresses what it is to be American in a few of the songs, and all the ambiguities that come along with that," she said. "Our heritage, our history, our legacy, and our future."

Merchant is currently on the road supporting Motherland, playing Boston's Orpheum Theater Tuesday (November 6).

Merchant had been the vocalist for 10,000 Maniacs for six albums, until leaving in 1993. Her first solo album, Tigerlily, was released in 1995.

-- Darren Davis, New York

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