by: Melinda Newman
NEW YORK - When the 10,000 Maniacs go into the recording studio next month, it will be their first effort with new lead singer/violinist Mary Ramsey. She replaces Natalie Merchant, who left to pursue a solo career in 1993.
The band is unsigned after parting with Elektra Records two years ago. "We are going to make the record we want to make, and then we'll leave the shopping to [manager] Peter Leak. We don't want someone [from a label] to get involved yet. We just want someone to write a big check at the end," says keyboardist Dennis Drew with a laugh.
"After Natalie left in the fall of 1993, we toyed with the idea of putting out a really underground record with no singing on it," Drew continues. "But that was just a goofy idea."
Instead, the band recruited guitarist John Lombardo and Ramsey, who, as acoustic duo John & Mary, had opened for 10,000 Maniacs on tour. Lombardo was a founding member of the Maniacs, but had left the band by 1986.
John & Mary recorded two graceful, stirring albums for Rykodisc before they joined the Maniacs' fold. For now, the duo is on hold. "Months or years later, when we dust John & Mary off, maybe there will be more response," Lombardo says. "We got good critical response, but our sales were negligible. I'm continually shocked when I see how little we actually sold."
"It was very natural to go with John & Mary," says Drew. "It was unspoken, really. It was one of those ideas that looked good on paper; we just needed to see if it would really work."
A few months after Merchant's September 1993 departure, Lombardo and Ramsey began writing with the remaining members of the band - Drew, guitarist Rob Buck, bassist Steve Gustafson, and drummer Jerome Augustyniak.
"We put together 13 or 14 songs," says Drew. "And we thought, let's find out if this really does work." So during the spring of 1994, the refangled band did a few gigs to see how the new setup felt live.
"The first gig we did that spring, there was a big banner hanging from the balcony saying, 'Welcome Mary "Sammy Hagar" Ramsey,"' says Drew of the obvious reference to the singer who replaced David Lee Roth in Van Halen.
After those initial outings, "we said, 'This is for real. Now, let's set about writing 13 or 14 good songs,"' Drew says.
Last month, the band road-tested the new material by playing sold-out club gigs in the Northeast, including stops in Boston; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C. Pittsburgh; Buffalo, N.Y.; and New Haven, Conn.
"The band just wanted to go out and play and see how the fans reacted," says Leak. "We went to great pains to make sure that people knew that Natalie wasn't in the band. All the advertising spots listed band members, and we told the clubs that if people called and asked, to make sure and tell them, We wanted people to know that Natalie wasn't in the band and have people come along with an open mind. I think there were a lot of people who came out of curiosity."
In between performing new numbers like Smallest Step, Once A City, and Girl On A Train, the band sprinkled in such hits as What's The Matter Here and Trouble Me.
"We don't have a problem doing that," says Drew, adding that while Merchant wrote most of the lyrics, the other band members usually wrote the music. "We'll always play a little of our back catalog, but we're not a tribute band."
Obviously not, but 10,000 Maniacs have a rich heritage. The band, which formed in the early '80s in Jamestown, N.Y., blended alternative rock with a folkie sound.
After releasing an EP (Human Conflict Number Five) and an album (Secrets Of I Ching) on Christian Burial Records, the band signed with Elektra, which released the Maniacs' major label debut, The Wishing Chair, in 1985. Five albums followed, including three that went platinum: In My Tribe, Our Time In Eden, and MTV Unplugged - which arrived just after Merchant announced she was leaving the band.
Lombardo, who left after the release of The Wishing Chair, likens the club gigs and the feeling of excitement among the band members to the beginning days of the Maniacs.
"It feels very similar to the early days," he says. "There's a sense of anticipation. Despite all the success the group has had, there's really a feeling of a unified challenge. We know there's not going to be any automatic acceptance. For that reason, it really parallels the kind of high hopes we all had at the very beginning."
What has changed since the beginning is that the band members have all grown up, making it possible for Lombardo to come back and not worry about the claustrophobic feelings that had led to his departure.
"I just needed a little independence at that point; I'd been in the band for five or six years straight," Lombardo says. "I was having trouble in my own mind giving up everything for the cause of the group. Now the band's grown, we can all lead separate lives."
The band members are aware that Merchant's first solo album will come out on Elektra in June and that they won't have a record out before late 1995 or early 1996. "But you can't get into a game about putting out our record before hers or whatever," says Drew. "We just have to do whatever's necessary to make a good record."