My four favorite music babes all together! L to R - Helen Avakian, Kate Daley, Natalie Merchant, and Kelly Daley. This picture was taken backstage when Natalie was a guest on the E-Town Live Radio Show. Kate and Kelly are my twin nieces. They are delightful ladies with wonderful voices and I have the pleasure of performing with them from time to time. Oh, and that Natalie girl isn't bad herself! (See more on the E-Town show in the Helen and Eric picture elsewhere in the gallery. Natalie has two excellent guitarists of which Eric Della Penna, Helen's old Manes College ensemble buddy, is one.)

The story I'll tell now is about when Kate, Kelly, their cousin Jennifer (same age and another wonderful niece) and I all met Natalie backstage at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, NY during Nat's Tigerlilly tour in Dec 1996. The gals were all 16, pushing 17 at the time. They were surprised Uncle Pooz would take them to a Natalie concert on a Sunday night when I had to work the next morning - but those silly little teens didn't know I was a Natalie fan before they ever were. I was so blown away the 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged on MTV that I had to have both the CD and the Video! With only the CD, you don't get to see Natalie dancing around, and that's half the show! So I was really looking forward to seeing her live myself.

The Innocence Mission opened, and they were fantastic! The Mid-Hudson Civic Center doesn't always do sound well, but they were right on this night. Good thing too, because the captured the subtlities of Karin Peris's voice and acoustic guitar, which just melted me in my seat. Here husband on electric guitar accompanied her voice so well as if they were... well married I guess! And happy to be so. I sat there thinking that Natalie really has guts to let this band open for her, because for her to top this act would be quite a feat.

Well, Natalie and her band came out and WOW! They were just awesome! If I had left after the Innocence Mission was done, I would have left happy feeling I just saw a great show. Then to have Natalie, and Jennifer Turner, and the Tigerlilly band - I could have listened all night. Natalie danced away for most of the songs, and she did a lot of songs! Then her encore was 5 or 6 songs. And she danced a lot more! Jennifer Turner fell down during the encore, and she and Natalie lost it - they just cracked up and couldn't continue for a while. (A stage hand had moved Jennifer's chair, and she felt like sitting.... and she did... on the floor!)

During the encore, niece Kate had gone up to the front near the stage. When the show was finally over (it was long, and very worth it!) she was soooo sloooow getting back to us. All the bigger people had come first, and Kate finally made her way back with her face glowing having been so near Natalie and the band. But by the time she reached us, the band had come back out to gather their equipment. So I said "Kate, not that I want to stay any longer, but why didn't you just stay another couple minutes? You could have spoken to a couple of the band."

Then, you know those cartoons where you see a cartoon character, then you see a puff of smoke where the character was standing and a few lines to show which direction he took off in? (ya know, like the Roadrunner, or Bugs leaving Elmer in a hurry.) Well, Kate was suddenly gone, just like that! Then Kelly and Jennifer (niece Jen, not Jen Turner) were quickly behind her.

I tried to walk quickly, but I was way behind. Then I saw Kate talking to Jennifer Turner, and Jennifer seemed to be shaking her head "yes" and pointed to Peter Yanowitz, the drummer and more importantly, Natalie's sweeite at the time.

Then I saw Peter wave his arm, and suddenly, the girls were all on the stage, running towards the back. I had almost approached the stage by this point. I remember thinking "Oh, this is nice. My nieces are all going to get to meet Natalie. This is very nice." Then there were several voices: "GET OUTTA HERE! WE GOTTA CLEAN UP!" "Boy, my nieces are backstage. This is very cool." Then right in my face, "THE SHOW IS OVER, GET OUT!!" Then I thought, well, how do I find them? Where will I meet them? "HEY, WHICH PART OF 'GET OUT' DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? GET OUT!! WE NEED TO CLEAN UP!!

Then I thought, I can't tell my brothers "Well, lost your daughters. Sorry about that guys." So I got up on stage. I never, NEVER get up on stage. I am not the get up on stage type. (Well OK, I play guitar, but I never get up on any major show's stage!). But I got on stage. And the yelling continued. And people got in my way. And I said "Look, my girls all went there, and I can't leave without them." And I made it backstage and began going downstairs.

Once downstairs, there was calm, and peace, and lots of people who were not yelling. One woman said "Welcome. Come in. There is food over here, and drink over here. Please come in." I had just left the haunted forest and entered the Emerald City. Complete chaos to complete peace. Not that I blame the staff at all - they had to do their job, and I was in their way. But once I got out of the way and went backstage, it was a whole new world.

I spotted the 3 girls in a hallway. There were 2 younger girls (13ish) talking to them. I asked why they were right there (away from the food and drink the nice lady offered!) and Kate said they were told Natalie would eventually walk by here. So we hung out a while. There was a young late teens or early 20's couple there also, not saying much (if anything).

I was tired. The concert got over after 11, and I think it was around 12:15 or so that I asked how long we would be waiting if we didn't see her. Kate snapped "We're backstage at a Natalie Merchant show. We're not leaving if we have to stay all night to meet her." Then the younger girls from Woodstock agreed with Kate, and I wondered how they were getting home as they were too young to drive and there was no adult with them.

I kept my eyes peeled for Natalie. I wasn't going to miss her because it meant so much to the girls. Well, you know, she's a whole lot taller on stage! After looking up to her all night, I figured she was at least 7 feet tall! But she quickly walked right under my nose drinking a bottle of water and I didn't recognize her! Kelly was the first to realize who it was when she was about 10 feet away and yelled "Natalie, would you sign my ticket stub?"

Natalie turned around and saw the small crowd of mostly young people waiting anxiously for her. She said "Sure. Why don't you wait for me in my dressing room and I'll be right there." I assume it was her publicist who led us in. Then Natalie came back shortly with a Poloroid camera and asked if anyone wanted pictures. (I need to scan some of those - I know at least Jennifer has one. Next time.) Anyway, she posed for a few pictures and gave the pictures away to the kids.

Then she spoke to everyone. Asking them about school, their interests, just regular ol' stuff. She really put everyone at ease. It was kind of like 'yeah, yeah, okay, you think I'm special, but you're special too. So now that we have all that out of the way, let's talk!' In other words, she didn't downplay herself, it was more like she pulled everyone up to her level.

The evening was so magical, I really had no sense of time. I have no idea how long we were all in her dressing room. It seemed to be about 40 minutes. Maybe it was 20, I just don't know. But she did a long show, sang up a storm and danced the night away. She must have been tired, but she graciously spent all this time making her fans feel special. I now easily awed, but I was speechless. It was just amazing.

After signing autographed pictures, and chatting, and asking questions, and answering questions, there seemed to be an long pause. The kids all looked starry-eyed in the silence, but it dawned on me that Natalie might not know how to graciously end this. I was a little surprised - after all those years in the Maniacs, all that experience dealing with fans, neither she nor her publicist seemed to know how to initiate a "great to meet you and goodnight"... So I did it. I said "OK girls. Say thank you to Natalie for being so gracious with her time. I'm sure she must be tired now and I need to get you guys home." (something like that). Anyway, she walked over to me, and shook my hand, and asked who I was the "guardian" of. So I told her I was Uncle Pat, that Kate and Kelly and Jennifer were with me.

Walking out of there is not a clear memory. We were all in a dream at that point. What a sweet lady! WOW! Unfortunately, I think a few inconsiderate fans have spoiled that kind of spontaneous encounter. She and other stars have had to be much more careful since then. Not this night of course, but I've heard about others. How sad. But the gals have met the "real" Natalie more than once, and she's even more "Kind and Generous" than her own song of that name. God bless you Natalie Merchant!!!

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Helen's own homepage: www.HelenAvakian.com

Natalie's own homepage: www.NatalieMerchant.com

Natalie's pages at Electra Records: www.Natalie-Merchant.com