Natalie Merchant
Town Hall,NYC
Jul. 16, 2010
Review by David Chiu

Natalie Merchant made a very poetic return to performing on stage after a seven-year hiatus–literally.

Her latest work, Leave Your Sleep, takes poetry written by others (such as Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins and e.e. cummings) and reinterprets them as songs with Merchant composing the music.

Half of the set performed at Town Hall on Friday, the second of a two-night stand, were devoted to a selection of songs from Leave Your Sleep. Accompanied by a large ensemble of musicians that included woodwind players, a banjo player and a fiddler, Merchant introduced each selection by describing the poem and the poet before launching into the song (There was an image of the poet projected on the screen). Continue reading “Live Review: Natalie Merchant”