after 4 years of raising and child and being virtually unavailable except for charity events and special events, Natalie Merchant returned to the stage. Hiro is a tiny stage and NM was no more than 4 feet from me all night. There were people reaching out her and cat calling her and snapping pictures. She was the consummate professional and worked with the crowd. She was nervous and had moderate level of energy. By the end of the show, she was looser and having fun with the crowd.
I made three friends that night. Andrew from SCotland, who natalie recognized. she acknowledged lots of people that night. Brian a school teacher from NY and Stephanie Berger, the NYtimes reporter who needed to take photos. I could have made her job hard or easier. I chose easier.
Natalie was in great voice and explained her new songs. She was asked to set an Elizabethan sonnet to music and it was stunning. She then set children's poetry or poetry by children to music. Man from the Wilderness, a nursery rhyme with a scary tune: Janitor Boy
* Oh I'm in love with the janitor's boy,
And the janitor's boy loves me;
He's going to hunt for a desert isle
In our geography.
o "The Janitor's Boy"
* He'll carry me off, I know that he will,
For his hair is exceedingly red;
And the only thing that occurs to me
Is to dutifully shiver in bed.
o "The Janitor's Boy"
* I linger on the flathouse roof, the moonlight is divine.
But my heart is all aflutter like the washing on the line.
To a swing tune. Natalia Crane wrote this at age 10. Natalie Merchant was taken by the poem and set it to music. it was a fun little ditty.
There were others and then she got on her more new music. Texas about a child who is privledged and destined to own the moon. His father sets him on a course. Moving On, Moses song, Getting on song that she talked about as a new years resolution.
Natalie sang many known songs from Tigerlily, Orphelia, an impromptu Owensboro, village green preservation society by Kinks, I need love by sam phillips.
I was taken by the show, the closeness, the music, hearing Natalie live again after all these years. She really is one of my favorite. I will be back again on Wednesday for another dose of NM.
Thank you NM for returning to the stage and singing for us and for you.
