by: Tony Norman (page C5)

No, it's not your imagination.

Natalie Merchant really has been keeping a lower profile these days.

Eschewing the cover stories and hoopla that would be her due for selling 3.5 million copies of Tigerlily, Merchant prefers talking to obscure print journalists these days.

That would be us.

"I've tried to avoid saturating the media," the folk diva said in advance of her performance at the Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheatre tonight. "I'm putting out the fourth single from Tigerlily in September, and I don't want people bemoaning the fact that I won't go away."

Not only are people not tired of Merchant's brand of literate-confessional pop, Tigerlily continues to sell a healthy 30,000 copies a week after 55 weeks on the charts.

"It amazes me that so many people continue to buy it," she said.

Asked if many of her fans were nostalgic for the old days, Merchant quickly waved off any sentimental notions hinting at a future reunion.

"Everyone seems to completely understand that I was in that band from the time I was 17 until the time I was 30," she said. "Just imagine yourself in any situation that long. It would be like being in college forever."

Merchant is so committed to the idea of musical evolution and change, she's already told her current band it's over after the tour. "A lot of them are in other bands and took two years off to be with me," she said. "When the tour ends on Aug. 1, I plan to spend the next year writing, traveling and doing what I need to do to make a record."

Songwriting continues to be a solitary process for Merchant.

"Maybe I won't always be so precious about it, but that's how I do it," she said. "What I want to do is touch audiences emotionally and not intellectually. I want to make them celebrate what's good about themselves and what's great about their lives."

Merchant said she's drawn to two distinct poles musically and doesn't expect anything less from her audience.

"I like music veering toward the melancholy," she said. "I also enjoy exuberantly joyous gospel music and West African high-life guitar music along with Cuban salsa. At the same time I like Mahler, Bartok and moody tango music. I feel that any record should have a balance of those two directions."

Merchant doesn't necessarily believe the hype that the best music coming out of the major labels today is being recorded by women.

"The best music being made these days is coming from the Third World," she said. "I hear music from Pakistan, India, West Africa, Cuba and Haiti. All of it sounds so much more vibrant to me than music made in the United States."

She recently left the H.O.R.D.E. Tour to headline her own tour.