Natalie Merchant releases an album of Poetry to music

I have long been a Natalie Merchant fan. I think most people would agree that 10,000 Maniacs was the best period of her career, but she did have strong solo material with Tigerlily and Ophelia. I think many fans started to fall off and drift away with the albums such as Motherland, etc. Well Natalie has come back with a 2 cd set of songs based on the work of many, many poets titled 'Leave your Sleep'. She did most of the work on her own in Garageband at home. Once the poems and the basic music structure was down, she went into the studio with too many bands and musicians to name. The result is quite interesting. I feel like the sheer volume of songs is a little excessive, but there are quite a few gems in the album. She makes use of may types of music such as Appalachian, jazz, reggae as well as a standard songwriter pop format. If you are a dedicated fan, it is a must buy. If you are a fleeting fan, then there are definitely tracks to pick and choose through download. Since I am still exploring the album I am hesitant to suggest any specific tracks. Go on over to Amazon.com where you can sample all the songs quite easily. Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Leave-Your-Sleep-Natalie-Merchant/dp/B002ZCDR88/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1272049316&sr=8-1

All of this considered though, it really made me pull up on the old 10,000 Maniacs catalog on the Ipod and catch up on the classic music they created together. Here is a great track: