Merchant's Treasure: Natalie Merchant's Mixtape (Vol. 2)

Hi There

It's time for the second part (of four) which scaninng Natlie Merchant's Discography. After publishing the First Volume , I thought it would be more productive to focous on her less known songs. So here it is...

The opener is Verdi Cries (Youtube, Lyrics) which is taken from In My Tribe (1987) which represents her 10,000 Maniacs era in this mixtape. I diccovered this one lately and it keeps playing in my headphones rapidly. you can also find Gun Shy  (Youtube, Lyrics) preformed live in her Live in Concert (1999) taken from the same album above.

Farom her latest album so far, Leave Your Sleep (2CD) (2010), I've chosen If No One Marries Me  (Youtube, Lyrics) which reveals the fear of staying alone. I find it ponceptually close to one of her favourite songs of mine, Ophelia  (Youtube, Lyrics), taken of an album with the same name, Ophelia (Jewel) (1998). A dark Gloomy song about a lonely girl called Ophelia. On the duets part in this mixtape, there're 2 songs: When They Ring Those Golden Bells  (Youtube, Lyrics), which is the final song in Ophelia (Jewel) (1998), where she sings with Karen Peris of  The Innocence Mission and it sounds great, a slow country song with acoustic gituars. Another Duet on this mixtape is Photograph  (Lyrics) with Micheal Stipe of REM. It seems is was taken from REM's monoumental Out of Time (1991).


Wonderwall  (Lyrics) is a cover version preformed live at Chicago. Merchant's tribute to one of UK popular Rock bands of the 90's couldn't have been better. Another cover version for Johnny Cash's, Come Take A Trip In My Airship (Lyrics) is kind of childish, with a singing girl in the background, but maybe that's the magic of this song.
Wonder  (Youtube, Lyrics) and Jealousy  (Youtube, Lyrics) are rhytmic, Blousy ones that is very similiar to other songs. They're both taken from her debut album,  Tigerlily (1995), while The Worst Thing  (Youtube, Lyrics) and Put The Law On You  (Youtube, Lyrics) are taken from her third album Motherland (2001).

Enjoy this mixtape (All the songs in this link) , Stay tuned next week for the third part....

Merchant's Treasure: Natalie Merchant's Mixtape (Vol. 1)

How I First Heard About Natalie Merchant...


I remember in the mid 90's, A lovely song of 10,000 Maniacs reached my ears. The voice of the young singer, Natalie Merchant, fascinated me with her tender voice. This was the first time I heard the Because The Night, later I found out it was a well-known cover version of Patti Smith's song from 1978. In fact, I quite forgotten this song until I listened to her last monumental album Leave Your Sleep (2CD) which made ​​me go back and listen to most of her discography. While wandering among those rich albums, I decided to make several mixtapes which demonstrate to a certain extent the high quality of this singer.

From Childhood To Maturity - First Mixtape

This Mixtape begins with a cover version of Neil Young's song 'After The Gold Rush' from an  album with the same name. Other songs from Live in Concert (1999) which appears on this mixtape are 'Seven Years' and 'Gulf Of Araby' which I find more impressive on Live Shows. I also included 'In The Ghetto' which was preformed live  in one of her Chicago's shows. 

Her collaboration with The Chieftains in represented here by 'The Lawlands of Holland', An old Biritish folk song which appears on her Retrospective 1990-2005 (2005). I've also chosen to place 'She Devil' from her concept Album Ophelia (1998) together with three songs of her latest Leave Your Sleep (2CD) (2010): The beautiful 'Spring and Fall: To A Young Child', 'The Land Of Nod' and 'Crying, My Little One'. 

The mixtape is completed with 2 songs of Motherland (2001): 'Tell Yourself' and 'Motherland'. I tought it would be nice to add something from her 10,000 Maniacs era, So I've put 'These Are Days' inside.

Enjoy This mixtape....