Natalie Merchant

While her folky, college-rock band 10,000 Maniacs continued without her, singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant went solo, releasing in 1995 her hit debut album, Tigerlily. Her work since has alternated between sentimental easy listening for the adult contemporary set and unexpectedly experimental and ambitious. Her 1998 album Ophelia examined the Shakespeare character from a feminist perspective; 2001’s Motherland incorporated orchestral sounds and world-music undertones, and her new Leave Your Sleep pays tribute to poets from Robert Louis Stevenson to Robert Graves and Christina Rossetti.