Natalie Merchant released her first new album of new material in nine years with Keep Your Courage. Along with that album’s release on April 14, 2023, Merchant launched a new tour at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, NY, near her Hudson Valley home. And I was fortunate to see her show there on April 15.
Below we examine the new album and what inspired Natalie Merchant’s new music. And then we discuss the opening weekend of the tour supporting the album from one of our most enduring singer-songwriters of the last forty years.
Keep Your Courage
First, the album. Keep Your Courage emerges from a rough time for Natalie Merchant. In addition to trying to get through the pandemic, she underwent spinal surgery four days after the start of the lockdown. The surgery required a long healing process.
The album’s title, Keep Your Courage, as well as the image of Joan of Arc on the cover, gives away that it is not a dark album. Instead, as AllMusic writes, the music “celebrates compassion, empathy, and inspiration.”
The album includes some of the most catchy songs from Merchant’s post-10,000 Maniacs career, including the album’s opening two duets with Abena Koomson-Davis of the Resistance Revival Choir. “Come On Aphrodite” immediately became one of my favorite songs from Merchant’s career.
The title of “Come on Aphrodite” hints at some of the themes on the album, where Merchant’s songwriting incorporates myths, legends, and history to send a positive message. As Merchant has explained, “During the pandemic, it really felt like we were living in the myth.”
Many of the songs on the album are slower and many feature rich orchestrations, more rooted in classical and folk music than in pop or rock. Or as Jim Shahen at No Depression describes the arrangements as “baroque pop.”
Merchant wrote nine songs for the album, which also includes an interpretation of “Hunting the Wren” by Ian Lynch of the Irish band Lankum. Merchant’s “Sister Tilly” provides a tribute to the inspiring women of her mother’s generation.
Yet, both the slower and more upbeat songs are uplifting. Largely because Merchant’s writing and her voice, as always, bring a deep warmth and compassion to the music.
Perhaps the best description of the two types of music on Keep Your Courage comes from a statement Merchant made about creating the album: “Music got me through the pandemic, and what I wanted to hear was thoughtful, beautiful music, or I wanted to dance.”
The Keep Your Courage Tour
The above description about the combination of “thoughtful, beautiful music” with dancing music, not surprisingly, also describes Merchant’s 2023 tour. Alternating between the slower lush music of her career and music that makes you want to dance, Merchant performed a moving and, at times, lively show. Throughout, despite needing some honey for her throat at one point, Merchant’s voice remains distinctive and strong as it ever was.
Her performance at Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, NY on Saturday, April 15, 2023, featured a guitar, a piano, a cello, several stringed instruments, and a powerful backup singer. Although some of her shows on this tour feature a fuller local orchestra, her smaller travelling group filled the house with a sound that well-suited Merchant’s voice.
Not surprisingly, the setlist featured several songs from the new album, including “Sister Tilly,” “Come On Aphrodite,” “Narcissus,” “The Feast of St. Valentine,” “Big Girls,” and “Tower of Babel.” But the 25 songs (with an intermission) also included highlights across her long career, like “Beloved Wife” and “Ophelia.” And, much to the delight of the audience, Merchant herself danced to uplifting songs from both her solo career and her time with 10,000 Maniacs, like “Kind and Generous,” “Wonder,” and the final encore closing “These Are Days.”
All in all, in both her new album and her ongoing tour, Merchant brings us both somber reflection and uplifting celebration of getting through dark days. And it means more because she dances with knowledge that the dark days always come again.
But that is why when you can, you have to take time to reflect while also remembering to dance.
Leave your two cents in the comments.
There are forces of nature. Gravity, magnetism and Natalie Merchant. I saw her in Cincinnati and it was fantastic. I haven’t kept up with her music since the 10000 maniacs days but still her show was spellbinding. Natalie Merchant has big (ish) feet (she takes her shoes off during the concert to dance around the stage) and at one time her blouse slipped up to reveal some muffin top. These glimpses of her humanity made her that much more beautiful. Natalie’s voice is still like honey, like spiced deep red wine. She and her backup ensemble, particularly the striking young woman singing backup really seem to be enjoying giving a live performance rather than just singing for money. Natalie’s music was warm, varied and genuine. Of course she ended the concert with her hits “Kind and Generous” and “These are the Days” but the entire rest of the concert was just magical. Thank you Natalie.
My thoughts from the Greenville show on April 24 match Scott’s above. Natalie Merchant and her music have been a part of my life the last three decades, an influence to me in so many ways, and I went as a quiet way of thanking her. Instead I fell in love all over again. Her voice has taken on so many special qualities over the years, and she is a force on stage (I’ll never forget how she marched several times across the stage, mic stand in tow, as she sang the anguished second half of “River”). She can make you ache to tears with a song one moment, then between songs her wonderful sense of humor can have you laughing, as she pokes a little fun at herself or makes light of something that doesn’t go quite as planned. That was what I enjoyed most: seeing her in full, this wonderful, incredibly talented and very human person who knows who she is and shares that with us, and is that much more endearing for it. Scott said it best: the whole thing was magical. To anyone reading, if you get the chance – go see her! (And to Natalie – thank you, thank you…!)