Alongside the release of a new video for her latest single ‘Come On Aphrodite’, New York alternative rock songwriter Natalie Merchant has announced details of her upcoming EU tour, which includes a show in Dublin’s 3Olympia Theatre on 8th November 2023.
Tickets from €55 including booking fees on sale Friday 24th at 10AM
‘Come On, Aphrodite’—named an “emotive, passionate track” by American Songwriter—is taken from Merchant’s forthcoming album, Keep Your Courage, set for release on April 14 on Nonesuch Records. The song features Abena Koomson-Davis (Resistance Revival Chorus) and establishes the record’s themes of love and passion as essential to the human experience.
Produced by Merchant, Keep Your Courage is the artist’s ninth solo studio album, and the latest new material since 2014’s self-titled record. The eclectic album features additional contributions from Celtic folk group Lúnasa, Syrian virtuoso clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and jazz trombonist Steve Davis. There are lush orchestrations by seven composers throughout, including: Gabriel Kahane, Stephen Barber, Colin Jacobsen, and Megan Gould. The new record comprises nine original songs by Merchant as well as an interpretation of “Hunting the Wren” by Ian Lynch of the Irish band Lankum.
Over her forty-year career, Natalie Merchant has attained a place among America’s most
respected recording artists. She has earned a reputation for being a songwriter of quality and a captivating stage performer and has distinguished herself as a social justice and environmental activist. Merchant began her musical career as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the pop music band 10,000 Maniacs and released six albums—including one platinum, two double-platinum, and one triple-platinum records—with the group: The Wishing Chair (1985), In My Tribe (1987), Blind Man’s Zoo (1989), Hope Chest (1990), Our Time in Eden (1992), and 10,000 Maniacs MTV Unplugged (1993).
Merchant left the band in 1994 and has subsequently released nine albums as a solo artist with combined sales of seven million copies: Tigerlily (1995), Ophelia (1998), Natalie Merchant Live (1999), Motherland (2001), The House Carpenter’s Daughter (2003), Leave Your Sleep (2010), Natalie Merchant (2014), Paradise Is There (2015), and Butterfly(2017).