by: Chuck Tayler (Airwaves column, page 76)
THESE ARE DAYS: With her current album, Ophelia, a kinder, gentler Natalie Merchant decided to try a different tack to incite change in her listeners.
"I've always been outraged by so many aspects of life and society and wanted to point to things and say, 'Look at this, we need to change this,'" says the former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs. "But I came to the same conclusion that a lot of people do as they get older: People need to change within first, with their hearts before their minds. Now, instead of wanting to change people, I just want to move them."
Since the release of her second solo album on Elektra in May '98, Merchant has moved more than a million people to buy the project - 9,000 alone in just the past month, according to her label - and ignited the airwaves with debut single Kind And Generous, which hit No. 18 on Hot 100 Airplay and No. 3 on adult top 40 radio, according to Airplay Monitor. That song was basically a hearty "hey, thanks" to her fans and followers for their support during her first solo album, Tigerlily, released in 1995.
Equally good-natured is her latest single, the moody and poetic Life Is Sweet, a song about recognizing the good fortune that comes from living life to its fullest.
"Our time here is fleeting; it's ephemeral," Merchant says. "It's good to recognize a deeper appreciation for being here. That's all that song is supposed to do." At adult top 40 radio, it is now No. 15, with strong major-market airplay in New York, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco.
And all the while, the "earth mother," as one programmer describes her, has remained unaffected, understated, and as organic as a rice cake.
"She's the only quadruple-platinum artist I know who's riding the New York subway," says Greg Thompson, senior VP of promotion at Elektra. "Her appeal is a sense of honesty and positive energy. I think that Natalie truly reaches into the hearts and souls of people. She's a great storyteller, and that's what makes an artist out of people, instead of just a singer who has hit singles."
"I think she's all about the lyrics," offers Greg Carpenter, music director of hot AC WMMX (Mix 106.5) Baltimore. "There's good music to back her up, but it really comes down to the message she hopes to get across. I think people identify with what she's saying, and she brings out a lot of passion in them."
"Life is very complicated and daunting, and I want to speak to young Americans and say that I understand but that you must preserve your spirit and protect yourselves," Merchant says. "Life should be more than growing up to acquire things. People have to develop their minds. I especially feel for ostracized teenagers who think there's something wrong with them because they stray from the mainstream - because they feel things."
All of the programmers queried about Merchant agreed that the wisdom-flavored messages she brings to their audiences have made her a core artist for the hot AC and adult top 40 formats. Says Jaime Kartak, music director of WTMX Chicago, "We own her. Natalie Merchant totally personifies the sound of this station. When people hear her, they know they're listening to the Mix."
And they do hear Merchant. Besides the two hits from Ophelia, WTMX has in its active gold library her other solo singles Carnival, Wonder, and Jealousy and 10,000 Maniacs' Candy Everybody Wants, Trouble Me, and These Are Days. (It recently retired the Maniacs' adult top 40/ hot AC staple Because The Night)
"I think she's always been one of our core artists," adds Casey Keating, PD of hot AC KPLZ Seattle. "She really fits in nicely with Sarah McLachlan, Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel, and matchbox 20. In Seattle, she's almost more of a triple-A artist, and she just gives us a little more depth at the station."
Merchant returns the affection, saying that radio airplay has afforded her the opportunity to reach a broader audience that might not otherwise hear her musical soliloquies.
"It's important, and it's great to have it," she says. "Radio is a wonderful instrument for reaching the people. It's free, and it's out there. For me, it's even more important than people buying my album. I like to find other ways to reach the audience. That's why I don't think I could put an album out and not tour."
And that's an understatement. In characteristic style, Merchant has toured nearly nonstop since Ophelia was released. She wraps up her current run June 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13 with a five-night gig at New York's Neil Simon Theatre.
The performances will provide material for her third solo album, a live set. "We're really excited about that, because her live show is at its pinnacle now. She is in the zone," says Elektra's Thompson. "It's unbelievable how strong she is right now."
Before this round of touring, Merchant spent last summer on the road with the Lilith Fair, performing at 57 of the exhaustive tour's 62 dates. This year, she intends to sit out Lilith.
"I feel like I've really experienced Lilith, and it was great. But I think we'd be repeating ourselves if we did it again," says Merchant. "That show was very validating, with artists like [Lilith founder] Sarah McLachlan and her friends coming up with a good idea and seeing it through in a collective style. It's not an idea that was hatched in a corporate boardroom. It was powerful."
In fact, Merchant saw fit to contribute her live Lilith version of Elvis Presley's In The Ghetto on Lilith Fair Volume 2, released May 18 on Arista. Perhaps it seems a curious choice.
"I like finding popular songs throughout the years that aren't about the most current subjects, to cast light on darker areas," Merchant says. "I felt like Elvis recording such a socially conscious song was such an anomaly - it made it all the more compelling - but because the combination was so bizarre, I'm sure he meant it when he said it."
She adds, "Songs are like languages that die if you don't revive them quickly"
That conscientious focus on such still-relevant subject matter is one of the things that radio agrees sets Merchant apart from the pack at her core stations.
"She's a little different from our other artists," says KPLZ's Keating. "They're more pop in their appeal than Natalie. I think her songs are a little more on the esoteric side, where they come across as less hook-driven than emotionally driven, because of her attention to lyrics."
"Because the tempo is slow on the songs on [Ophelia], it takes a little longer for people to embrace her," says Tony Mascaro, music director of WPLJ New York. "Her songs are not as hooky as some of the uptempo stuff, and with those songs people look more for the message, but I think we've gotten into a time now where people are just as much into the lyrics of a song as into the music, particularly with females."
"I just think music is powerful," says Merchant. "It opens people up in ways that nothing else can. When you sing, you tell people who you are. I really appreciate that people are finding things to think about in my songs. I want to be looked at as a good songwriter and as a pretty all right singer."