As vocalist and chief songwriter for 10,000 Maniacs, Merchant fronted one of the most important bands of the then emerging alternative format. As Elektra's chairman/CEO Sylvia Rhone says, "She was the creative force in so many ways, and any time an artist steps away from a long-term association with a group with that kind of success, there's a great deal of interest."

Her past band achievements, Rhone acknowledges, have earned Merchant "flagship artist" status at Elektra, as has the quality of her music.

"She's put a lot of effort into making a solo debut album that was tremendously challenging and courageous artistically," says Rhone, adding that Tigerlily was completely self-conceived and produced. "It shows a different side of Natalie, but I think it will still satisfy the Maniacs' audience while allowing a lot of other people to discover what's so special about her."

First single Camival, Rhone says, carries a broad, mainstream appeal. "It's very rhythmic and soulful with a great lyric, and I think even people who like dance music and who have no relationship or awareness of the Maniacs will discover her."

Carnival goes to radio at the end of May with a promotional CD single serviced to college, alternative, album rock, and triple-A formats. The full album, which streets June 20, will be serviced to triple-A and college radio as well.

The single will be backed by a video directed by Melodie McDaniels, which should garner strong support from MTV and VH1, says VP of product management Lisa Frank. Plans are also under way for major in-store play and visibility, as well as an extensive consumer, trade, radio, and MTV ad campaign. Appearances on late-night talk shows and morning news programs are in the works, too. That exposure will be key to leading sales, says John Artale, buyer for the 149-store, Carnegie, Pa.-based National Record Mart. "I think her name might not be familiar, but the voice and the visual are," says Artale. "One good video and a few good close-ups, and people will remember who she is ... 10,000 Maniacs sold very well for us, and Elektra's always very supportive of artists like that. They are still a boutique label when it comes to nurturing artists like Natalie. The record could do very well."

"The first stage is establishing radio airplay, but the second starts with a U.S. tour in late August," says Frank, noting that Merchant's new road band will consist of the core group of musicians who appeared on the album. Besides Merchant on vocals and keyboards, it includes Jennifer Turner on guitars and backing vocals and ex-Wallflowers drummer Peter Yanowitz and bassist Barrie Maguire.

There will also be a heavy push internationally, says Merchant's manager Jon Landau. "Natalie speaks to people everywhere," he says, "and part of our job is to pursue that potential." Rhone, Elektra president Seymour Stein, and VP of international Bill Berger have just returned from a European marketing/sales presentation, which Rhone says was enthusiastically received, generating anticipation of much better sales of Merchant's solo release overseas than her outings with 10,000 Maniacs.

Merchant is only the second client of Landau and his partner, Barbara Carr, the first, of course, being Bruce Springsteen. "Our experience and perspective is in developing long-term careers, which naturally fits in with an artist of such tremendous talent as Natalie," Landau says. "This album is part of an unfolding story instead of being an end in itself."

But Merchant's first solo album does mark a major career turning point for the artist. The title stems partly from her love of flower names, she says, noting that she also just purchased a house in Woodstock, N.Y., and "inherited" a garden containing hundreds of tiger lilies.

"But I also love names that combine two incongruous things -- which is kind of how the album was written," says Merchant of Tigerlily. "It's a combination of songs which are almost fierce in power lyrically and musically, and others which are really gentle and graceful."

The artwork features a portrait of Merchant, pictorially setting her apart from 10,000 Maniacs, which formed in 1981 in Jamestown, N.Y. Her new publishing company -- Indian Love Bride further distances her from her past musical life.

"With the Maniacs, it was Christian Burial Music," she says. "Indian Love Bride conveys the opposite, and it's also what they call a woman in India who married for love instead of living by an arranged marriage. After 12 years, I'm leaving my arranged marriage."

As Merchant recounts, she "stumbled into being a singer" at age 17, when she happened upon the Maniacs at a party. "I stayed with them month to month, saying I'd go back to college," she says. "Then I woke up one day after we'd sold a million records and said, 'this is what I'll do with my life.'" Since being in a rock band wasn't something she'd chosen to do originally -- let alone being in that particular rock band -- leaving the Maniacs was a natural evolution.

"We accomplished a lot of great things together, but there I was with people from the exact same town I was born in, and all I wanted to do since I was 15 was escape from that town!" Merchant says. "After 10 years together I said I'd go, but I was committed to one last album, which turned into two, but one was MTV Unplugged - which was a great way to have closure with a live retrospective."

Fueled by a cover of the Springsteen-penned Patti Smith hit Because The Night, the Unplugged album closed out Merchant's run with 10,000 Maniacs on a high note. "I look at those years and six records as an education, and look at this first album on my own as truly my debut, with the opportunity to practice everything I learned," she says. Handpicking a young backup band and veteran engineer John Holbrook -- who had originally designed the tracking room at Bearsville Studios, where Tigerlily was recorded -- she decided to produce it herself out of her desire to fullill her "clear vision" for the record following five months of preproduction.

Merchant also funded the project herself. "I didn't want any pressure from the company," she says, "and wanted responsibility if it was a failure -- not someone saying, 'Now you owe us $200,000!' But I had a wonderful A&R woman in Nancy Jeffries, who didn't bother me, and neither did Jon Landau, who'd call occasionally and I'd say,'Everything's going fine.' I didn't want anybody to interfere."

The album's sound quality, she affirms, is "sparser and more open" than that of the Maniacs, "but it's amazing how lush it can sound at certain points," she adds, crediting Holbrook. But the biggest difference is in the lyrics, Merchant says. "When writing for the Maniacs -- since the Maniacs were primarily men -- I felt like I had to hold back certain feelings or perspectives, because I didn't feel it was fair to speak for the entire group that way. This is the first time I'm really speaking for myself."