Natalie Merchant

Suziemay

Was at the NJPAC show. First of all, acoustics at that place is amazing. I've seen 7 EV shows and my favourite is still the one at NJPAC in 2008.

Natalie with the orchestra was phenomenal. Definitely more mellow but I loved it! But my favourite part was when Natalie came out with just Gabriel Gordon and a piano player (I don't know his name but guessing he's toured with Natalie before) and she said "the request line is open". They didn't exactly take requests but they decided what songs to sing on stage, and the chemistry amongst the 3 of them were unbelievable. I really wanted to take a picture since I had a killer view in the 2nd row, but the ushers warned me that Natalie doesn't like pictures and I remember her at another show chiding someone for taking pictures so I resisted. Oh well. It was still amazing to witness, I'll just have to have that memory captured in my brain for as long as I can.

And at some point during the show she thanked everyone for coming, saying she appreciates that life hasn't been too easy recently in NJ. And that all her portion of the profits for this show was being donated to Sandy relief efforts. Just like that. So very generous.

Pap

Suziemay wrote:

Was at the NJPAC show. First of all, acoustics at that place is amazing. I've seen 7 EV shows and my favourite is still the one at NJPAC in 2008.

Natalie with the orchestra was phenomenal. Definitely more mellow but I loved it! But my favourite part was when Natalie came out with just Gabriel Gordon and a piano player (I don't know his name but guessing he's toured with Natalie before) and she said "the request line is open". They didn't exactly take requests but they decided what songs to sing on stage, and the chemistry amongst the 3 of them were unbelievable. I really wanted to take a picture since I had a killer view in the 2nd row, but the ushers warned me that Natalie doesn't like pictures and I remember her at another show chiding someone for taking pictures so I resisted. Oh well. It was still amazing to witness, I'll just have to have that memory captured in my brain for as long as I can.

And at some point during the show she thanked everyone for coming, saying she appreciates that life hasn't been too easy recently in NJ. And that all her portion of the profits for this show was being donated to Sandy relief efforts. Just like that. So very generous.

Thanks for the review Suziemay! I'm glad that you enjoyed the show!

mikalina

Frozen Charlotte...

http://youtu.be/-MpeNwR5XYo

Pap

:thumbup:

helplessdancer

as much as i'd rather see her with another band, one that was more UP...i'm still gonna try to make a show of her's with the orchestra. might be kinda cool...

cheap seats of course

MayDay10

Went to the show in Buffalo Saturday.

We had front row seats, and it turned out we were directly in front of her mic, probably only about 6 feet from her most of the night. It was pretty wild, and the sound in Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo is outstanding. Its an old place, but stands up.

The orchestra portion was pretty good. She stuck a lot to her new childrens poem book/album selections and they were pretty good. Went very well with the orchestra. She said they had less than a day of practice time together which is unbelievable.

Then for the encore she came out with just a guitarist and pianist. That part was really cool. She is from the area and it really seemed like she was playing for friends and reminiscing getting back & forth from Jamestown to play back in the early 80s and about going to the Falls as a kid, etc. She also went through a bunch of songs, many of 'the hits', and cut a lot of songs short because she wanted to play a lot. She even went into singing rapid fire snippets of songs about Saturday night including Bee Gees, earth wind & fire, etc. She had only played with the guitarist 2x and he couldnt really keep up all the time (she was jumping around everywhere), so she was 'coaching' him through some of the songs. That part was about an hour.

LloydXmas

Our time in Eden still holds up.

drivingrl

MayDay10 wrote:

She is from the area and it really seemed like she was playing for friends and reminiscing getting back & forth from Jamestown to play back in the early 80s and about going to the Falls as a kid, etc.

I had no idea she was from that area! What a treat for you guys.

Did anyone make it to her shows in Ft Worth? I heard it was great!

Pap

Happy Mother's Day!


Motherland

mikalina

Pap wrote:

Happy Mother's Day!


Motherland

A favorite of mine - thank you for sharing.

Pap

The one and only Natalie Merchant did it again!


Free children's orchestral concert in Las Vegas

Natalie and book illustrator, Barbara McClintock's visit to a New York City public school


This summer Natalie will be appearing with the following orchestras:

Thursday, July 11, 2013 - Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Detroit, MI

Saturday, July 13, 2013 - Columbus Symphony, Columbus, OH

Saturday, July 20, 2013 - Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Bethel, NY

Sunday, July 21, 2013 - Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Great Barrington, MA

Please see the website calendar (http://www.nataliemerchant.com/calendar) for more information and to purchase tickets.

mikalina

YES !!!! Natalie has done it again !!!! thanks Pap for sharing this info

2,600 children show up to this free concert - just incredible....

Pap

Several new orchestral shows have been added for the coming months that we would like to announce, including a very special event in New York City at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, April 26, 2014.

As part of Carnegie Hall's Family Concert Series, Natalie will perform music from her Leave Your Sleep picture book with a small chamber orchestra. There will be an opportunity to meet Natalie and the book's illustrator, Barbara McClintock, at a rare signing following the performance.

Here is a current list of her upcoming orchestral shows:

Friday, October 4, 2013 - New Jersey Symphony, Red Bank, NJ

Friday, October 18, 2013 - Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham, AL

Saturday, November 2, 2013 - Louisville Orchestra, Louisville, KY

Friday, November 15, 2013 and Saturday, November 16, 2013 - Tulsa Symphony, Tulsa, OK

Saturday, January 11, 2014 - Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville, FL

Sunday, January 12, 2014 - Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Miami, FL

Saturday, January 25, 2014 - Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, Fort Collins, CO

Sunday, January 26, 2014 - Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Springs, CO

Saturday, March 8, 2014 - Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Newport News, VA

Saturday, March 22, 2014 - New Jersey Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Morristown, NJ

Pap

She's going to release a new album (self-titled) on May 6th!

Giving Up Everything is the first track to be released in advance of the release date.

Strangely beautiful! ^:)^

brianlux

^^^ Great! Will watch for that one! Thanks for the heads up. :-)

JH6056

Just saw her at a college radio station benefit a few weeks ago, she played songs from the new album and they sounded great! And she stopped the show at one point and gave a great rant (it was in good spirit and funny, not whiney at all even though this may sound like it) and yelled at all the people spending the show recording with smart phones instead of actually listening and watching. She started collecting smartphones and by the end of the small show (it was a tiny venue) there was a funny line of smartphones on the stage, everyone's penance for not being able to break their camera phone addictions LOL! It was very funny.

Will be nice to check out the new album!

curlygirly9

The 10000 Maniacs' Like The Weather is one of my favorite songs ever. Natalie Merchant is great.

brianlux

I love that little moment on the 10,000 Maniacs live record where at the end of one the songs this guy yells out,

NATALIE!

Coulda been me if I'd been there!

Pap

JH6056 said:

Just saw her at a college radio station benefit a few weeks ago, she played songs from the new album and they sounded great! And she stopped the show at one point and gave a great rant (it was in good spirit and funny, not whiney at all even though this may sound like it) and yelled at all the people spending the show recording with smart phones instead of actually listening and watching. She started collecting smartphones and by the end of the small show (it was a tiny venue) there was a funny line of smartphones on the stage, everyone's penance for not being able to break their camera phone addictions LOL! It was very funny.

Will be nice to check out the new album!

Nice little story! Thanks for sharing it with us.

JH6056

No problem, happy to share! There was another brief funny moment... since it was a fundraiser for a radio station, they would have Natalie play a few songs and then stop and interview her for a few minutes, then more songs, then a few more questions. In one break they talked about the new album and she mentioned she was excited about it, and a few people yelled out supportive comments. Then people kept yelling and she said something like "You have a lot to say, what are you saying?" which then turned into people making requests for older songs. They did this for a few moments and then Natalie interrupted them and said "Which part of "WE HAVE A **NEW** ALBUM COMING OUT" did you not understand?? We're playing NEW songs! Did I say it was time for requests??" But again, she said it in a really funny way, so everyone did laugh.

The new songs sounded really good!

In other news, since this is a thread about her, her music and 10,000 Maniacs have been on my mind a lot lately, and because the story I'm about to tell remains one of my most intense live music experiences ever, a million years ago I was so so so very lucky to be able to be in the audience for the taping of VH1's Storytellers on Natalie and 10,000 Maniacs. It was amazing all around. But the most intense moment was when she did "What's the Matter Here", and she got so. totally. into it. She was singing and sobbing and so very emotional... that after it was done they decided to have them play it again and get a somewhat less raw version. I felt incredibly lucky to have seen just how deeply she cares about that issue and how she really channelled the song in that moment, it was super duper intense. Made me respect her even more than I already did, and I respected her a lot. So if you have that taped, I think the broadcasted version is pretty emotional as well, but know that there was an even more intense version played before it!