Natalie Merchant is an American singer-songwriter from Jamestown, New York, who rose to prominence as the lead singer of the alternative rock and folk-rock band 10,000 Maniacs, formed in the early 1980s, before launching a solo career in the mid-1990s. Her music blends folk, pop and rock influences, characterised by narrative, literate lyrics and melodic arrangements, and across her solo work she shifted towards more intimate, piano- and acoustic-driven compositions with occasional orchestral textures.
