by: Mary Anne O'Callaghan (Associated Press)

Quick - name two famous women from Jamestown, N.Y.

Give up?

Your answer could be Lucille Ball, and vocalist-songwriter Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs.

Merchant's critically acclaimed rock quintet - which hails from the city in upstate New York and will perform Wednesday at Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis - has followed an album that has sold almost a million copies, In My Tribe, with a new one, Blind Man's Zoo. The new single is Trouble Me, in which a person asks to be confided in.

But most of the songs have social, not personal, concerns. One, Poison in the Well, is eerie in its timeliness:

"O, don't tell us there's poison in the well, that someone's been a bit untidy, that there's been a small spill. All that it amounts to is a tear in a salted sea. Someone's been a bit untidy, they'll have it cleaned up in a week."

The band, hailed by critics as innovative and diverse, has been together since 1981, when the members met at Jamestown Community College.

"We were on the college radio station there and no one liked us. We were busy playing music of the Gang of Four and all they wanted to hear was the Boss (Bruce Springsteen)," said Merchant. "In Jamestown, our music grew without the pressure of competition. We could develop at our own pace. Our interests were dictated by our individual record collections rather than the music press, as opposed to if we were in New York City or London."

The band's name comes from the title of a horror movie.

"We'd had a few different names and were playing a Halloween party," Merchant said. We picked 10,000 Maniacs because it sounded like Halloween. Everyone really liked us at the party and it dawned on us that if we changed our name, no one would know who we were. So we stuck with it."

Originally, the band covered songs by British bands. It developed its own sound by integrating those sounds with a bit of folk, bluegrass and country.

"We thought we were very ordinary in the beginning," Merchant said."But we were so ordinary, we were unusual. We didn't have extravagant hair styles or clothes. Our music was based on the old verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge.

"At the time, we were using mandolins and recorders, and no one else was doing that. That set us apart."

The band recorded its first Elektra album, The Wishing Chair, in London. That record made many critics' Top-10 lists for the best of 1985.

Shortly thereafter, founding member John Lombardo departed, leaving Merchant, Steven Gustafson, Rob Buck, Jerome Augustyniak and Dennis Drew. "I think John's leaving helped us," Merchant said. "We were pretty set in our own individual ways. After John left, we were forced to clean up our sound and to work on it. I realized on Wishing Chair that we were overplaying, so we toned it down to give more space for the melody."

Merchant also tried to go a different route in writing the second and third records. The first, she said had allusions and metaphors that were complex and which confused people. The second gave the band "above-ground" status.

"I'm glad, because when I talk to people they aren't underground people," she said. "They aren't into, say, the Dead Kennedys. They're doctors and students. How underground can we be when we've been on Johnny Carson?"

Merchant writes songs for the band without a formula. The lyrics attempt to deal with real issues.

"I used to worry about that," she said. "I mean, the Top 40 is so pathetic, lyrically. I wanted a song that had some strong lyric but I didn't know if America could handle it. Then Suzanne Vega came along with Luka and it was a huge hit." (That song is about an abused child.)

"It meant the country could listen to such a song, taking it to their hearts. I think people can be entertained and informed at the same time."

On Blind Man's Zoo, Merchant wrote all the lyrics, and also the music for four of the 11 songs. Other band members wrote music for the rest.

Eat for Two is about a girl who gave in to a boy and now is pregnant. Please Forgive Us is about a war where America paid for the weapons. The Lion's Share and Dust Bowl are about poverty. Hateful Hate is about taking slaves, killing animals, converting and colonizing in Africa.

For the future, Merchant said, "I want to have the freedom to do anything I want to do musically. I would also like to do other projects. I'd like to make films. I've always been a student of art. I'd also like to publish a book. However, I don't feel that I've lived enough for that.