May 30, 2009

Another new-to-me artist

I know I lived in a musical dead zone from about 1980-2000, but even so, how did I miss Natalie Merchant?

On a recommendation from John Cole, I checked out a copy of Tigerlily, and I'm very favorably impressed. On this album Merchant's voice reminds me a little of Carly Simon's, and some of the songs and arrangements do too.

Posted by Linkmeister at May 30, 2009 02:48 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Listen closely to "Beloved Wife". That song never fails to make tear up and get a lump in my throat. I also have 2 other Merchant albums, "Ophelia", which I like a lot, and "Motherland", which I just got a week or two ago, and am still learning about (but I like it).

Posted by: Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers) at May 31, 2009 05:55 AM

Oh, it just occurred to me to ask if you missed Joan Osborne? She works in a number of styles (for a little white girl she's got one hell of an R&B voice), but the thing that first got me were her own songs on "Righteous Love", especially "Safety in Numbers" and "Make You Feel My Love".

Posted by: Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers) at May 31, 2009 06:02 AM

Heh. You should check out the 10,000 Maniacs stuff from when she was a kid (I think she was about 16 or 17 when she started singing with them). In My Tribe was their breakthrough album, but Blind Man's Zoo has some fine moments on it.

Posted by: Scott at May 31, 2009 07:14 AM

What a voice. I missed her too.

Posted by: cassie-b at May 31, 2009 09:18 AM

Bruce, the only Osborne I know of is Ozzie; I'll have to look into Joan's work.

Posted by: Linkmeister at May 31, 2009 09:32 AM

Thanks for the recommendation. The snips I heard on Amazon sound pretty good, so I guess I'd better get at least one CD.

By the way, thanks also for the tip on the books of Karen Rose. When I went looking for any that Borders might have, I couldn't find anything. When I checked with one of the clerks, he said, "Oh, that's over here in Romance." But I don't read Romance - bodice-rippers bore me. Well, the two Karen Rose books I picked up are anything but boring. I finished reading "Count to Ten" and am now a little over halfway through "Scream for Me". I don't dare pick it up after supper or I'll never get to bed! WOW!!

As it is, I'm up far too late most nights anyway. And a further aside, I've noticed that the time posted on my comments is always an hour ahead of when I actually make the entry. This post will show 1:41AM. Hmmmm......interesting.

Posted by: Illanoy Gal at June 1, 2009 01:43 AM

Yeah, for some reason her publisher insists that Karen Rose writes romantic suspense. Yeah, there's a romance in each book (as there is in many standalone mysteries), but they're thrillers to me.

Movable Type doesn't recognize that Hawai'i doesn't do Daylight Savings.

Posted by: Linkmeister at June 1, 2009 08:41 AM

LOVE the Natalie!

Posted by: cookie jill at June 5, 2009 01:58 PM