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Natalie Merchant began her solo recording career after leaving 10,000 Maniacs in 1993. Her albums have moved through alternative rock, chamber pop, traditional folk, literary song cycles, orchestral arrangements, archival collections, and music created for young children. This complete list of Natalie Merchant albums and songs presents her solo releases in chronological order, with album information and track listings.
Merchant released nine solo studio albums between Tigerlily in 1995 and Keep Your Courage in 2023. Her catalog also includes the live album Live in Concert, the compilation Retrospective: 1995–2005, the archival collection Rarities (1998–2017), and the ten-disc Natalie Merchant Collection. Her next digital album, Cabinet of Wonder, is scheduled for August 21, 2026.
Tigerlily
Released: June 20, 1995
Tigerlily was Natalie Merchant’s debut solo album following her departure from 10,000 Maniacs. The self-produced record established a more intimate sound than much of her former band’s work and became a major commercial success. “Carnival,” “Wonder,” and “Jealousy” became its best-known singles. Merchant recorded the album primarily at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, with musicians including guitarist Jennifer Turner, drummer Peter Yanowitz, and bassist Barrie Maguire.
CD Track Listings:
- “San Andreas Fault” – 3:58
- “Wonder” – 4:26
- “Beloved Wife” – 5:03
- “River” – 5:32
- “Carnival” – 5:59
- “I May Know the Word” – 8:07
- “The Letter” – 2:12
- “Cowboy Romance” – 4:39
- “Jealousy” – 2:41
- “Where I Go” – 4:00
- “Seven Years” – 5:30
Ophelia
Released: May 19, 1998
Ophelia expanded Merchant’s solo sound through strings, horns, percussion, and collaborations with musicians including Lokua Kanza, Chris Botti, Daniel Lanois, N’Dea Davenport, and Karen Peris. Merchant again produced the album, which reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 and included “Kind & Generous,” “Break Your Heart,” and “Life Is Sweet.”
CD Track Listings:
- “Ophelia” – 5:10
- “Life Is Sweet” – 5:12
- “Kind & Generous” – 4:07
- “Frozen Charlotte” – 5:23
- “My Skin” – 5:30
- “Break Your Heart” – 4:47
- “King of May” – 4:09
- “Thick as Thieves” – 6:57
- “Effigy” – 2:30
- “The Living” – 3:18
- “When They Ring the Golden Bells” / “Ophelia (Reprise)” – 9:33
Live in Concert
Released: November 9, 1999
Live in Concert was recorded at the Neil Simon Theatre in New York City during June 1999. The album combines songs from Merchant’s first two solo records with 10,000 Maniacs material and interpretations of songs by David Bowie, Neil Young, and Katell Keineg.
CD Track Listings:
- “Wonder”
- “San Andreas Fault”
- “Beloved Wife”
- “Space Oddity”
- “Carnival”
- “Dust Bowl”
- “After the Gold Rush”
- “Gun Shy”
- “The Gulf of Araby”
- “Ophelia”
- “Seven Years”
Motherland
Released: November 13, 2001
Motherland was recorded primarily at Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York, and produced by Natalie Merchant and T Bone Burnett. Its songs balance personal reflection with observations about politics, celebrity, inequality, and contemporary American culture. The album features string arrangements by Stephen Barber and musicians including Gabriel Gordon, Elizabeth Steen, Van Dyke Parks, and Mavis Staples.
CD Track Listings:
- “This House Is on Fire” – 4:42
- “Motherland” – 4:44
- “Saint Judas” – 5:44
- “Put the Law on You” – 5:01
- “Build a Levee” – 4:46
- “Golden Boy” – 4:10
- “Henry Darger” – 4:24
- “The Worst Thing” – 5:46
- “Tell Yourself” – 5:14
- “Just Can’t Last” – 4:31
- “Not in This Life” – 5:22
- “I’m Not Gonna Beg” – 3:40
The House Carpenter’s Daughter
Released: August 12, 2003, through Natalie Merchant’s website; September 16, 2003, in stores
The House Carpenter’s Daughter marked Merchant’s move into traditional and contemporary folk music. Released through her independent Myth America label, the album includes British and American ballads, labor songs, hymns, and material associated with Fairport Convention and The Carter Family. The performances were recorded live to tape at Bearsville Studios with musicians including Erik Della Penna, Gabriel Gordon, Elizabeth Steen, Judy Hyman, Richie Stearns, Graham Maby, and Allison Miller.
CD Track Listings:
- “Sally Ann” – 5:47
- “Which Side Are You On?” – 5:02
- “Crazy Man Michael” – 5:12
- “Diver Boy” – 4:45
- “Weeping Pilgrim” – 4:11
- “Soldier, Soldier” – 3:43
- “Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow” – 3:20
- “House Carpenter” – 6:00
- “Owensboro” – 4:21
- “Down on Penny’s Farm” – 3:41
- “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” – 4:17
Retrospective: 1995–2005
Released: September 27, 2005
Retrospective: 1995–2005 collected highlights from Merchant’s first decade as a solo artist. The standard edition contained thirteen remastered selections from Tigerlily, Ophelia, Motherland, and The House Carpenter’s Daughter. A deluxe edition included a second disc of collaborations, soundtrack recordings, alternate versions, and previously unavailable material.
Standard Edition Track Listings:
- “Wonder” (single version) – 4:24
- “Carnival” – 5:59
- “Jealousy” (single version) – 2:44
- “San Andreas Fault” – 3:58
- “Kind & Generous” – 4:06
- “Break Your Heart” – 4:53
- “Life Is Sweet” – 5:14
- “The Living” – 3:18
- “Build a Levee” – 4:48
- “Not in This Life” – 5:22
- “Motherland” – 4:45
- “Owensboro” – 4:25
- “Sally Ann” – 5:49
Deluxe Bonus Disc Track Listings:
- “She Devil”
- “Cowboy Romance”
- “Children Go Where I Send Thee”
- “Birds and Ships”
- “The Lowlands of Holland”
- “One Fine Day”
- “Photograph”
- “Party of God”
- “Thick as Thieves” (acoustic version)
- “Bread and Circuses”
- “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
- “Tell Yourself” (acoustic version)
- “But Not for Me”
- “I Know How to Do It”
- “Come Take a Trip in My Airship”
Leave Your Sleep
Released: April 13, 2010
Leave Your Sleep is an ambitious double album built from Merchant’s musical adaptations of British and American poetry, nursery rhymes, and lullabies. The project took seven years to complete and involved approximately 130 musicians. Its arrangements move through chamber music, jazz, Celtic folk, bluegrass, Cajun music, reggae, gospel, Chinese music, klezmer, and rhythm and blues.
CD Track Listings:
Disc One:
- “Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience” – 5:11
- “Equestrienne” – 4:39
- “Calico Pie” – 2:42
- “Bleezer’s Ice-Cream” – 5:17
- “It Makes a Change” – 3:31
- “The King of China’s Daughter” – 2:39
- “The Dancing Bear” – 5:38
- “The Man in the Wilderness” – 3:45
- “maggie and milly and molly and may” – 4:09
- “If No One Ever Marries Me” – 2:22
- “The Sleepy Giant” – 3:20
- “The Peppery Man” – 5:06
- “The Blind Men and the Elephant” – 5:33
Disc Two:
- “Adventures of Isabel” – 3:26
- “The Walloping Window Blind” – 4:17
- “Topsyturvey-World” – 5:10
- “The Janitor’s Boy” – 3:52
- “Griselda” – 5:51
- “The Land of Nod” – 4:06
- “Vain and Careless” – 4:44
- “Crying, My Little One” – 2:28
- “Sweet and a Lullaby” – 3:05
- “I Saw a Ship A-Sailing” – 2:13
- “Autumn Lullaby” – 3:23
- “Spring and Fall: to a young child” – 3:07
- “Indian Names” – 5:52
Natalie Merchant
Released: May 6, 2014
Natalie Merchant was her sixth solo studio album and her first collection made entirely from newly written material since Motherland. Merchant returned to a core group that included Erik Della Penna, Gabriel Gordon, Uri Sharlin, Jesse Murphy, and Sean Pelton. The record uses strings, woodwinds, brass, gospel vocals, and understated rock arrangements to support songs about women, memory, loss, injustice, and resilience.
CD Track Listings:
- “Ladybird” – 6:37
- “Maggie Said” – 4:27
- “Texas” – 5:02
- “Go Down Moses” – 5:01
- “Seven Deadly Sins” – 4:51
- “Giving Up Everything” – 4:20
- “Black Sheep” – 4:08
- “It’s A-Coming” – 3:50
- “Lulu (Introduction)” – 1:03
- “Lulu” – 4:15
- “The End” – 5:11
Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings
Released: November 6, 2015
Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings revisited Merchant’s debut album on its twentieth anniversary. She recorded all eleven songs again with acoustic instrumentation, strings, and arrangements that reflected how the material had evolved during two decades of performance. A documentary film accompanied the album.
CD Track Listings:
- “San Andreas Fault” – 4:49
- “Beloved Wife” – 5:26
- “Carnival” – 4:57
- “River” – 5:43
- “The Letter” – 3:56
- “Where I Go” – 4:02
- “I May Know the Word” – 7:41
- “Seven Years” – 5:04
- “Cowboy Romance” – 6:07
- “Jealousy” – 4:05
- “Wonder” – 4:49
Butterfly
Released: July 14, 2017, as part of The Natalie Merchant Collection; released digitally June 26, 2020
Butterfly combines four previously unreleased compositions with six songs from Merchant’s catalog newly arranged for string quartet. The new material consists of “Butterfly,” “She Devil,” “Baby Mine,” and “Andalucía.” The reinterpretations continue the chamber-oriented approach Merchant explored on Paradise Is There.
CD Track Listings:
- “Butterfly” – 5:39
- “She Devil” – 6:21
- “Baby Mine” – 4:06
- “Frozen Charlotte” – 5:58
- “Ophelia” – 5:32
- “The Worst Thing” – 5:11
- “The Man in the Wilderness” – 3:47
- “My Skin” – 4:57
- “Vain and Careless” – 4:24
- “Andalucía” – 5:40
Rarities (1998–2017)
Released: July 14, 2017, as part of The Natalie Merchant Collection; released digitally June 26, 2020
Rarities (1998–2017) gathers fifteen collaborations, home recordings, live performances, alternate versions, outtakes, and previously unavailable songs. The collection includes work connected to David Byrne, Billy Bragg, The Chieftains, Cowboy Junkies, Amy Helm, Buddy Holly, Randy Newman, Ray Davies, and other writers and performers.
Track Listings:
- “The Village Green Preservation Society” – 3:22
- “Too Long at the Fair” – 3:20
- “Order 1081” – 5:48
- “To Live Is to Bury” – 3:32
- “Saint Judas” – 3:46
- “Birds & Ships” – 2:12
- “The Lowlands of Holland” – 3:48
- “Sonnet 73” – 4:12
- “Learning the Game” – 3:27
- “My Little Sweet Baby” – 2:28
- “Political Science” – 2:48
- “Build a Levee” – 4:43
- “Sit Down Sister” – 1:36
- “The Gulf of Araby” – 7:10
- “Portofino” – 1:54
The Natalie Merchant Collection
Released: July 14, 2017
The Natalie Merchant Collection is a deluxe ten-disc box set covering Merchant’s solo work from 1995 through 2017. It brought her previously issued albums together with the new Butterfly and Rarities discs, along with a book containing lyrics, photographs, and a visual history of her solo career.
Disc Contents:
- Tigerlily
- Ophelia
- Live in Concert
- Motherland
- The House Carpenter’s Daughter
- Leave Your Sleep
- Natalie Merchant
- Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings
- Butterfly
- Rarities (1998–2017)
Keep Your Courage
Released: April 14, 2023
Keep Your Courage is Merchant’s ninth solo studio album and her first full-length collection of newly written songs since her self-titled 2014 record. The album is built around love, courage, recovery, mythology, memory, and community. Abena Koomson-Davis shares vocals on “Big Girls” and “Come on, Aphrodite,” while Lúnasa, clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and several orchestral arrangers contribute to the record’s expansive sound.
CD Track Listings:
- “Big Girls” featuring Abena Koomson-Davis – 4:57
- “Come on, Aphrodite” featuring Abena Koomson-Davis – 5:20
- “Sister Tilly” – 7:42
- “Narcissus” – 6:02
- “Hunting the Wren” – 5:47
- “Guardian Angel” – 5:56
- “Eye of the Storm” – 5:30
- “Tower of Babel” – 2:28
- “Song of Himself” – 4:51
- “The Feast of Saint Valentine” – 6:06
Cabinet of Wonder
August 21, 2026
Cabinet of Wonder is a digital project created by Natalie Merchant with musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Children’s Theatre. Its songs reimagine Mother Goose rhymes through chamber music, jazz, calypso, Celtic folk, and other styles. The program contains seventeen songs plus the narrated piece “Who Is Mother Goose?,” resulting in an eighteen-track digital release. The recordings were made at Electrical Audio in Chicago with orchestral arrangements by Megan Gould.
Digital Track Listings:
- “Cabinet of Wonder (Theme Song)” – 1:38
- “Who Is Mother Goose?” – 4:23
- “Humpty Dumpty” – 1:51
- “Peter Pumpkin Eater” – 1:23
- “Little Miss Muffet” – 1:45
- “Old King Cole” – 1:30
- “Little Nut Tree” – 2:25
- “Hickory Dickory Dock” – 1:00
- “Hey Diddle Diddle” – 2:42
- “The Queen of Hearts” – 2:41
- “Jack Be Nimble” – 0:58
- “Jack Sprat” – 2:18
- “The Cuckoo” – 2:06
- “Mary Had a Pretty Bird” – 1:43
- “Rub-a-Dub-Dub” – 1:33
- “A Crooked Man” – 1:16
- “Rhyming Town” – 1:50
- “The Goodbye Song” – 2:35
Read More: Top 10 Natalie Merchant Songs
Updated August 2, 2026.
Complete List Of Natalie Merchant Albums And Songs article published on ClassicRockHistory.com © 2026
