A lot has happened in Natalie Merchant’s life in the 13 years since she released her last collection of all-new material.
The singer/songwriter who rose to fame as frontwoman of the ’80s pop outfit 10,000 Maniacs has, in that time, gotten married and divorced, giving birth to a daughter in between. But Merchant says the songs on her new, self-titled album, out Tuesday, are driven by the same sense of empathy that has always motivated her.
“I’ve been in a position for a few decades to shield myself from so much,” says Merchant, 50, “but I’ve chosen not to. It’s always been part of my technique to write about larger events in the world in a personal way.” She’s moved by “the kind of things that are on the front page of your newspaper, whether it be climate change or food scarcity or civil unrest.”
In one new song, Texas, Merchant seems to assume the identity of an oil heir who goes about “pumpin’ and a-suckin’ till the well is dry.” The lyrics were “written about a specific person; but I don’t want to say who that person was, because it’s really about greed and the lust for power, which unfortunately are human traits. And as a society, we glorify wealth, which is usually the result of great greed.”
Merchant also found inspiration by looking inward, and closer to home. Raising a child has made her feel “more part of the human race,. I’ve written songs from the point of view of a mother before, but it was more hypothetical than empirical. That fierce love you feel for a child — it has made my whole journey richer.”
Getting older, Merchant adds, she has found herself “experiencing so many things that I didn’t in my 20s or 30s or 40s. The inevitability of death becomes part of your everyday experience; it’s not something you just think about in an abstract or romanticized way anymore.”
She’s determined to remain as socially active in middle age, having recently become an advocate in her Upstate New York community “for the rights of people who have been affected by domestic violence — women, men, children, gay, lesbian, transgender, married or not married.”
Merchant has “lived in rural New York my whole life,” and in the Hudson Valley for the past half of it. “I remember meeting Pete Seeger back when I was in my mid-20s; and he told me that as an artist, you need to find a home and become part of a community, or you’ll be lost. And you need to give to your community.”
Granted, Merchant will be leaving home this summer to embark on a tour. Over the past four years, she has performed periodically with different groups of musicians, including leading orchestras, promoting 2010’s Leave Your Sleep, a collection of adapted poems. “That was very exciting, but you don’t get the sort of camaraderie you have when the same group of people get together night after night.”
Her daughter won’t be joining her mom for the trek, which launches July 3 in Kingston, N.Y. “It’s only three and a half weeks, and I think it would be pretty exhausting for her. So she’s going to Europe instead, to visit family.”
But mother and daughter do sing together offstage, says Merchant, describing her offspring as “incredibly musical. She loves folk music, and she’s gotten to the point where she can harmonize really well.
“My sister and I sang together through our entire childhoods, so it’s wonderful to have someone close at hand to do that now.”
