Natalie Merchant’s PARADISE IS THERE: THE NEW TIGERLILY RECORDINGS will be released on November 6, 2015. This collection of all-new recordings revisits Merchant’s multi-platinum solo debut, TIGERLILY, originally released in 1995 following her departure from 10,000 Maniacs.
The new release is accompanied by a documentary DVD. containing live performances, archival footage, and interviews with musicians, friends, and fans about the influence the songs of TIGERLILY have had over the past 20 years.
TIGERLILY was described by the New York Times in 1995 as “an anomaly in a music scene in which reckless female performers reign supreme.” The album sold more than five million copies worldwide and featured the popular hit singles ‘Carnival,’ ‘Wonder,’ and ‘Jealousy.’ PARADISE IS THERE presents the songs as they have evolved over the past two decades of live performance.
“TIGERLILY is the most significant album I’ve made because it defined me as an independent songwriter after 12 years in 10,000 Maniacs,” Merchant explains, “It also created a bond between me and an audience that has supported and sustained me for 20 years. I decided to make the PARADISE IS THERE album and film for them, to honour the journey that we, and these songs, have all taken.
“There are several songs from TIGERLILY --’Carnival’, ‘Wonder’, ‘Beloved Wife’, ‘River’, and ‘Cowboy Romance’--that remain at the core of my live shows. They still have relevance to me and, by the response they receive, I can tell that they still resonate with my audience,” Merchant says. "The distance this music traveled once it left my hands is humbling, and I am moved by how many lives it has touched along the way.”
Q has called Natalie Merchant “among the most compelling and distinctive voices of the last decade,” while Vogue has said she is “one of the most successful and enduring alternative artists to emerge from the Eighties intact and uncompromised.” Her career began in 1981 when she joined the seminal alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs, which signed to Elektra Records in 1984. As lead vocalist, lyricist, and sometimes pianist, Merchant released six critically acclaimed studio albums with the band, including the platinum-certified IN MY TRIBE (1987), BLIND MAN’S ZOO (1989), OUR TIME IN EDEN (1992), and MTV UNPLUGGED (1993).
Merchant remains dedicated to a wide array of social justice and environmental causes. Recently, she spearheaded the making of the protest concert film Dear Governor Cuomo (2013) with New Yorkers Against Fracking, actors Mark Ruffalo and Melissa Leo, and filmmakers Jon Bowermaster and Alex Gibney, and she directed and produced SHELTER: A Concert Film to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence (2014).
PARADISE IS THERE is available to pre-order at iTunesand at nonesuch.com.