by: Ray Routhier
The hit songs keep coming, but Natalie Merchant seems more at ease talking about her passions for history and reading
Last spring in Maine, Natalie Merchant became interested in rocks.
It was on the island of Vinalhaven, where she was spending a vacation. She heard about the island's quarries, that some of the stone had been used to build Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, and she wanted to know more.
"I tried to get into the historical society there, but there was nobody around," said Merchant, speaking from her home in upstate New York last week. "When I heard about those quarries, I just had to do some research."
When Merchant comes to Maine next Wednesday, to play a Valentine's Day show at the Portland Exposition Building, her schedule will keep her from exploring more of the state's history. She said she'd like to go to Acadia National Park, but doesn't have time right now.
Merchant vaulted to fame during a decade as lead singer for the folk-pop band 10,000 Maniacs, lending her distinctive voice to hits like What's the Matter Here? and Like the Weather. Since leaving the band, she seems headed in the same direction on her own.
She released her first solo album (Tigerlily) last year, and it has produced at least one top-10 single on the Billboard charts - Carnival. The uplifting Wonder is at 24 and climbing. Still, Merchant seems more at ease talking about her passions for history and reading than about her success.
Merchant talked with the zeal of a school kid about topics ranging from world explorers to the fact that her hometown, Jamestown, N.Y., once was a huge producer of voting machines.
Merchant lives alone in a country house near Woodstock, N.Y.; she wouldn't name the town. On break from touring in January, Merchant said she was trying to read as much as possible. She's reading a history of Hawaii, which includes the story of an American named Dole who managed to gain large land-holdings from the natives.
"He went on to basically swindle the whole country away from the natives," Merchant said. "And when the natives rebelled, the U.S. Marines came in."
Merchant, 32, said she judges her own "value and worth" by how much she reads. She always has loved history. Her music and her historical bent have melded just once, though, when she wrote Gold Rush Brides.
But her fascination with people and events of the past jibes with the reflective tone of her music, and with her political activism. Last week Merchant spent a day in Albany, N.Y., talking to politicians about efforts to prevent logging in a state forest near her childhood home.
In January she performed at a benefit concert in Washington D.C. for Voters for Choice, a pro-choice group. And she has helped raise money for Rock the Vote, a group that educates and registers young voters.
Merchant has played Portland before, and mixed her solo album at Bob Ludwig's studio here, Gateway Mastering. Merchant's show will include a six-piece band, three or four songs made popular by 10,000 Maniacs, and two songs on which Merchant will play piano.
People might expect the mood of Merchant's Valentine's Day show to be particularly romantic. But Merchant said she didn't know her Portland show was on Valentine's Day, so she didn't plan anything special.
During a Halloween show once, Merchant came out in a witch's outfit and sang the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil. So might she dress as Cupid for her Portland concert?
"When I think about (Valentine's Day), I can't get away from that feeling of being excited in school," she said. "We used to decorate these bags at our desks, and that's where the other kids would put the Valentines.
"If aboy I really didn't like put one there, I wouldn't know what to do. But if I boy I liked did, it was so exciting. I always had a crush on someone."