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Natalie Merchant shares the video for “Sister Tilly,” from her 2023 album, Keep Your Courage. The track is dedicated to Joan Didion and pays homage to the generation of women who influenced Merchant in the 1960s and ’70s when she was growing up and the video, directed by Matthew Shattuck, features archival footage from the era. “This song holds a very dear place on the album,” says Merchant. “It celebrates the life of a woman I created to embody traits of several beloved female friends of mine who have passed away. These were all beloved mother, auntie, and sister figures that I owe so much for all the nurturing love and care they gave me throughout my life. You may recognize Tilly qualities in a cherished adopted or blood relative or friend who was part of that generation of women who came of age during the mid 1960s-mid 1970s. As happens with songs, ‘Sister Tilly’ has already grown to signify a generation of women–more than just one woman. When I have performed it live over the past six months, I can feel the song’s resonance with the audience. I can tell that I’m not the only one who feels an urgency to give these women their due respect. We owe them so much more.”
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Natalie Merchant shares the video for “Big Girls,” one of two duets featuring singer Abena Koomson-Davis (Resistance Revival Chorus), from her 2023 album, Keep Your Courage. Filmed in Brooklyn, the video is directed by Matthew Shattuck and edited by Andrew Pulaski.
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Natalie Merchant shares the video for “Tower of Babel,” from her 2023 album, Keep Your Courage. “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 video, filmed in Brooklyn, is directed by Matthew Shattuck and edited by Andrew Pulaski.
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Natalie Merchant shares the video for “Come On, Aphrodite,” featuring singer Abena Koomson-Davis (Resistance Revival Chorus), from her 2023 album, Keep Your Courage. Filmed in Brooklyn, the video is directed by Matthew Shattuck and edited by Andrew Pulaski. “‘Come On, Aphrodite’ is an invocation to the goddess of love and passion,” says Merchant. “In the lyrics, I list all the clichés we use to describe falling in love: being drunk and blind, over the moon, weak in the knees, and half out of our minds. For the Greeks, when the spirit of love descended, it was seen as a kind of assault; you would become powerless against an all-consuming, sweet madness. Amazingly, humans still crave it, in spite of the perils.”
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Natalie Merchant discusses her hit song “Wonder,” as do fans who've found hope and strength through the song, in this clip from the 2015 documentary Paradise Is There.
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Here's a quick look at The Natalie Merchant Collection, due June 23, 2017. The 10-CD box set has all eight of her solo studio albums, a new disc with new songs and reinterpreted catalog selections, and a disc of rare and unreleased tracks.
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Here is a quick look at Kronos Quartet's new album, Folk Songs, with Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant.
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Natalie Merchant's 2015 album Paradise Is There features new recordings of the songs of her solo debut album, Tigerlily. The accompanying film includes live performances, archival footage, and interviews with musicians, friends, and fans. Here is a preview.
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The video for Natalie Merchant's "Lulu," off her 2014 self-titled album features film excerpts from Pandora's Box, the 1929 silent film directed by G.W. Pabst and starring Louise Brooks, the subject of the song. Used with kind permission from United Film Enterprises, Praesens-Film AG, Zurich / Switzerland © 1929; special thanks to The Criterion Collection.
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Preview four songs from Natalie Merchant's 2014 self-titled album on Nonesuch Records: "Giving Up Everything," "Ladybird," "Seven Deadly Sins," and "It's A-Coming."
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