She can get a little edgy.

Talking by phone from The Mark hotel in New York City, Merchant, an amiable sort who chooses her words carefully, breaks from her diplomatic attitude when the misinterpretations of her song Wonder come up:

The song is about a woman who becomes a media attraction because of her extraordinary gifts of love and patience. Taken literally, Merchant's words would sound terribly arrogant because she sings in the first person.

However, "I wrote Wonder about one girl in particular with a severe handicap," she says. As for those who bristle at lines such as "I'm over your heads/How I confound you/ And astound you," Merchant says, "That's their problem. They'd have to be pretty dense to think I sang it about me. I'm not that crafty to be the first person to sing [about someone else] in the first person."

The singer doesn't go out of her way to explain all the details of what her songs mean because "I spend a lot of time crafting the lyrics, and I don't like to spoil it [with too much explanation]. I like to leave it real."

That has resulted in rough treatment from some critics who label her pretentious. So the former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs has resigned herself to being misunderstood.

"I've stopped reading any of my press. I can't believe interviews would lead to such a litany of misconceptions."

Merchant joined the group 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 as its 17-year-old lyricist and singer from upstate New York. ("I thought I was sophisticated.")

Her bandmates - men six to 12 years her senior - always seemed a little out of step with her style, giving a polished and sometimes whimsical background to her somber and often political lyrics.

But the coalition held for more than a decade, producing a half-dozen albums and singles such as Trouble Me, Candy Everybody Wants and Like the Weather.

By the last original album, 1992's Our Time in Eden, Merchant had made it clear she intended to part ways with 10,000 Maniacs. The group released one more record in 1993 (MTV Unplugged, which produced the band's biggest hit, Because the Night), and she was gone.

The group has continued with a new lead singer, Mary Ramsey.

Meanwhile, Merchant made her solo debut this summer with Tigerlily.

Missing from her solo album are the more decorated arrangements of the Maniacs, replaced with a quieter vibe and more subtle textures.

Carnival, the first single, represents the mood: Pushed along by a softly insistent groove, Merchant sings about the mesmerizing, but dangerous, seductions of the world.

After a slow start, the single has built momentum, forging to No. 17 from No. 23 this week on Billboard's singles chart, movement that surprises Merchant.

"I don't read the charts because I know I'll be so disappointed when they start going down," she says, admitting she did notice Tigerlily debuted at No.13 on Billboard's album chart a few months ago. Its sales continue to be strong, and this week it's No. 15.

The success has come without much fanfare.

"I didn't launch a media campaign. I asked [Elektra Records] not to hype me, and they respected that. I didn't want to have to live up to huge expectations."

Merchant began her first solo tour Sept. 20 in New Orleans. She says she respects the fact many in her audiences are 10,000 Maniacs fans, and she will thus perform some of the group's most notable songs.

"But I can't lie. I'm excited by the new album," she says.

The album includes River, a song about her friend, actor River Phoenix, and her outrage at the media frenzy that followed his death from a drug overdose.

"Life isn't all comedy and drama. I don't decide I'm going to have a comic morning, a tragic afternoon or an action evening. Everything exists simultaneously. That's just life."

Copyright (c) 1995, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH