Natalie Merchant and her smooth, comforting voice is the perfect
addition to the kind of ambiance KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas
creates. Her latest release, Tigerlily is not only the first
solo album for this artist, but also a symbolic gesture of what
Natalie can do when she calls the shots. "Carnival," the album's
first single, has already graced the KROQ airwaves on numberous
occations and will no doubt be one of the big hits tonight. Not
to be forgotten, Natalie's experience with 10,000 Maniacs is pretty
impressive with six albums as singer and lyrical producer. After the
release of hugely sucessful 10,000 Maniac MTV Unplugged, Natalie
announced her departure from the band and began to persue independent
projects. "The Unplugged album taught me that a single live performance
could be very, very powerful. I tried to record Tigerlily in
that spirit," Merchant excliams. For Tigerlily, she recieved an
entirely new foundation, including new managers, lawyers, accountants,
and eventually, a new band. The musicians she found were Peter
Yanowitz(percussion), Barrie Maguire(bass), and Jenifer Tuner(guitar).
The group spent five months rehearsing prior to entering the studio.