The last time rock songstress Natalie Merchant hit town, the 10,000 Maniacs former enchanted and entertained with an intriguing, instrumentally lush concert. “And while you might fear that the 19th and 20th-century children's poems she unearthed for her new release,
Leave Your Sleep, would threaten severe twee overload,” CL Editor David Warner
commented in his review, “the music they've inspired her to write is surprisingly rich and varied. Accompanied last night by an expert eight-member band playing everything from cello to piano to banjo to accordion, she made it seem as if the poems had been waiting for her music all along.” Children's book illustrator Barbara McClintock created a 48-page, full-color picture book based upon
Leave Your Sleep that was released last year, and likely it will be offered amid the merch offered on Merchant's current tour.
— Leilani Polk