Natalie Merchant's Nursery Rhyme

April 22, 2010

Natalie Merchant's Nursery Rhyme

The remarkable Natalie Merchant has just released a two-disc album that sets 26 poems to original music; it is her first release in seven years. It features poetry by Robert Louis Stevenson, Ogden Nash, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Robert Graves, and ee cummings, among others, and it carries a theme of childhood throughout them all. She collaborated with more than 100 artists to bring together an eclectic musical range.

What follows is Merchant rehearsing her version of Charles Causley's poem, "The Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience." See the full text of the poem here.

Posted at 11:01 AM in Culture, Literary Life, Poetry | Permalink

Comments

Beautiful, thank you for sharing. I look forward to listening to the entire album.

Posted by: Monet | April 22, 2010 at 09:23 PM

It's been on heavy rotation since the day it was released. LOVE HER ever since I was 14!

Posted by: Nina Misuraca Ignaczak | April 22, 2010 at 10:58 PM

Yeah! I had no idea about this CD til the other day, but I can relate to the longtime love for her. Here's what I listen to on glum, slow days:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6B25LcgAuE&playnext_from=TL&videos=8VSUg8vTsIE

Bonus: I love the cute thing she does with her feet.

Posted by: Anna Clark | April 23, 2010 at 12:55 PM

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Isak

Isak is a space to celebrate tales and truth in the curious, joyful way embodied by the writer for which it is named. The name "Isak," after all, means "laughter," as she was fond of pointing out.

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