Natalie Merchant has released "Tower of Babel," a new song from her upcoming album, Keep Your Courage, due April 14 on Nonesuch Records. "As much as I had wanted to not let events in the world intrude," Merchant says of the song, "I couldn’t disregard the prevailing atmosphere of fear and confusion that we have been living in as a result of the pandemic, climate crisis, economic instability, insane politics, violent insurrection, and the shocking fallout from the conservative-stacked reactionary Supreme Court."

The soul-inflected track features horn arrangements by trombone player Steve Davis. She has also released a video for the song, the second from the album to be filmed in Brooklyn directed by Matthew Shattuck (Foo Fighters, John Legend) and edited by Andrew Pulaski (Joey Bada$$, A$AP Ferg), following the video for the album track "Come on, Aphrodite" earlier this month. You can watch both videos below. You can pre-order the album and hear and get both tracks here.

Natalie Merchant Store and Nonesuch Store pre-orders before this Monday, April 3, include access to an exclusive virtual pre-release listening event next Thursday, April 6, via FlyMachine featuring songs from the new album and a conversation between Natalie Merchant and Carmel Holt. Further details will be sent prior to the event. Re-stream access will be available for 72 hours.

In celebration of the new music, Merchant will embark upon a US tour this spring, going into the fall, followed by a run of dates across Europe; see below for full tour routing and visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

Produced by Merchant, Keep Your Courage is an eclectic album that features additional contributions from Celtic folk group Lúnasa, Syrian virtuoso clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and jazz trombonist Steve Davis. There are lush orchestrations throughout by seven composers including: Gabriel Kahane, Stephen Barber, Colin Jacobsen, and Megan Gould. The new record comprises nine original songs by Merchant as well as an interpretation of “Hunting the Wren” by Ian Lynch of the Irish band Lankum. The vinyl LP edition includes four bonus tracks from earlier albums, previously unreleased on vinyl.

Merchant writes in her album’s liner notes, “The songs contained within this album were written and recorded during the global pandemic that began in the winter of 2019 and is in its fifth wave as I write, in the autumn of 2022. It has been, and continues to be, a period of great flux and fear on every level: global, national, communal, familial, personal. But this is not an album about the coronavirus or the chaos it caused. For the most part, this is an album about the human heart.” She continues: “The word ‘courage’ has its root in the Latin word for heart, cor, and we see it over and over in many languages: le coeur, il cuore, o coração, el corazón. This is a song cycle that maps the journey of a courageous heart.”

Over her forty-year career Natalie Merchant has attained a place among America’s most respected recording artists. She has earned a reputation for being a songwriter of quality and a captivating stage performer and has distinguished herself as a social justice and environmental activist. Merchant began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs and released one platinum, two double-platinum, and one triple-platinum records with the group: The Wishing Chair (1985), In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man's Zoo (1989), Hope Chest (1990), Our Time in Eden (1992), and 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged (1993). Merchant left the group in 1994 and has subsequently released nine albums as a solo artist with combined sales of seven million copies: Tigerlily (1995), Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999), Motherland (2001), The House Carpenter’s Daughter (2003), Leave Your Sleep (2010), Natalie Merchant (2014), Paradise Is There (2015), and Butterfly (2017).

Merchant has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Billy Bragg, Gavin Bryars, David Byrne, The Chieftains, Cowboy Junkies, Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Mavis Staples, REM, and Wilco. She served on the New York State Council on the Arts from 2007 to 2011 at the appointment of Governor Elliot Spitzer and was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center by New York State Senator and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Merchant’s awards include: The Library Lion Award from the New York Public Library (2011), The American Society of Authors Composers & Publishers (ASCAP) Champion Award, and The John Lennon Real Love Award. More information about Merchant’s career and philanthropic work may be found here.

NATALIE MERCHANT ON TOUR

* w/symphony orchestra