Specifically, the Natalie Merchant years.
With no disrespect to the versions of the band that have recorded and toured for the last thirty years, it is the original iteration that is of interest to me.
I was first made aware of the band in 1992; their album Our Time In Eden was out and I really got into it - and them in general. And no sooner had I devoured their entire back catalogue, than Natalie Merchant announced her decision to go solo!
1981, in the sleepy college town of Jamestown, upstate New York, there is band called Still Life. It consists of Dennis Drew (keyboards), Steve Gustafson (bass), Rob Buck (guitar), Chet Cardinale (drums) and Terri Newhouse (vocals), who happened to be Buck's ex-wife!
Elsewhere in town, another band called The Mills, features guitarist John Lombardo. As Cardinale and Newhouse both leave in July of 1981, Lombardo is invited to join, as is one Natalie Merchant.
Merchant was a local teenager, who was only really into classical and jazz at the time. She was studying at Jamestown Community College at the time and considering a career in special education, before throwing herself into band life.
A series of different drummers followed, as did some name changes, including Burn Victims, before finally settling on 10,000 Maniacs (taken from low budget horror film, Two Thousand Maniacs!). The first performance as the Maniacs came on 7 September 1981, featuring Tim Edburg on drums. He was followed by Bob 'Bob O Matic' Wachter....
Tiring of playing cover versions, the band started to work on their own material, with lyrics largely written by Merchant and the music covered by Lombardo. In March 1982, the band went into a studio at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, and recorded the Human Conflict Number 5 EP, this time with Jim Foti on drums.
There was a short and less than ideal spell in Atlanta, Georgia - friends had told them that gigs would be easy to come by - but it got so bad that there was tales of selling plasma and raking leaves to make ends meet! By November of 1982, the band were back on home turf in Jamestown.
Finally, the next year brought some settlement to the line-up, with Jerry Augustyniak joining behind the drum kit - joining from Buffalo punks, The Stains. Between March and July they were back into SUNY Fredonia, with the result being Secrets Of The I-Ching, their first full length record, produced by the band with Albert Garzon.
This record finally got them some attention further afield, getting some airplay by legendary BBC DJ, John Peel. Single, My Mother The War even became a minor hit in the UK Indie chart. It rolled on from there, with Peter Leak helping them get signed to the Elektra record label in November 1984.
The Wishing Chair:
Spring 1985 and the band, with their new label, found themselves in Livingstone Studios in London. Not only that, but they had Joe Boyd behind the desk for this one. Joe Boyd was a pretty big deal on the folk-rock circuit, having produced Liege and Lief for Fairport Convention, Five Leaves Down for Nick Drake and also in 1985, he would also produce Fables of the Reconstruction for R.E.M.
With the Wishing Chair done, Lombardo announced his departure, citing "creative and political differences." But the links did not end there. He would go on to form John & Mary, with singer / violinist Mary Ramsey, who herself would later find herself replacing Merchant as lead singer for the Maniacs. John & Mary would also support 10,000 Maniacs at times over the years.
In My Tribe:
For the next album, the band linked up with Peter Asher (who had been one half of 60s pop duo, Peter & Gordon, who had a hit with World Without Love. He was also brother of actress and one-time beau of Paul McCartney, Jane Asher).
Having been recorded in Los Angeles, In My Tribe was released in July 1987, eventually reaching two times platinum sales. In Rolling Stone magazine, J.D. Considine said, "With In My Tribe, the group has finally come into maturity. It isn't simply that the songs are richer and more resonant this time around, the band itself seems to have grown."
The album also started to more clearly highlight social issues through Merchant's lyrics. What's The Matter Here delves into child abuse; City of Angels on the homeless; Campfire Song condemns greed; while Don't Talk focused on a relationship with an alcoholic.
Blind Man's Zoo:
For the next album, the band were in West Hurley, NY - Peter Asher was once again behind the controls. The resultant Blind Man's Zoo album was released in May 1989, receiving a mixed reaction, put in a strong chart performance (#13 in the US and #18 in the UK), and once again showed Merchant probing myriad social and political topics.
There was teenage pregnancy (Eat For Two), the Iran-Contra affair (Please Forgive Us), water pollution (Poison In The Well), financial struggles (Dust Bowl) and two songs on colonialism (Lions Share and Hateful Hate). Big Parade is a touching song about Vietnam, through the eyes of a family at the Memorial in Washington D.C., while Trouble Me was about Merchant's father, who was ill in hospital at the time of recording.
Our Time In Eden:
Unbeknownst to their growing number of fans, before recording had even begun on the follow-up, Merchant had privately told the rest of the band of her decision to quit after the coming album and tour.
Our Time In Eden is where I join the 10,000 Maniacs story, with it being my entry point into their world. Produced by Paul Fox (who had worked on a weird mix of artists beforehand, from The Commodores and Pointer Sisters, to XTC) and recorded at Bearsville Studios in New York, the album was perhaps a little more college radio friendly, but no worse for that. Three great singles came from it - These Are Days, Candy Everybody Wants and Few and Far Between. Ironically, despite its more obvious pop sensibilities, when the album was released in September 1992, it only reached number 33 in the UK charts and 57 in the US.
MTV Unplugged and the end of the era:
The Merchant-era swansong was an MTV Unplugged album and video, recorded in April 1993, before being released in the October, after Merchant had actually left the band.
It contained acoustic interpretations of many of their classic songs, a cover of Springsteen's Because The Night (which strangely, possibly became their most well known song) and a small set including David Byrne. The performance also included one Mary Ramsey (also on Our Time In Eden) on violin.
By 1995, Natalie Merchant had put her out her debut solo album, Tigerlilly, before pursuing what has arguably been a much more successful (and certainly higher profile) path. There is no doubt that she learnt her trade with 10,000 Maniacs, but in the end she clearly felt the need to spread her wings more - telling Entertainment Weekly in 1995 that, "[I] didn't want to have to consult with all these other people - didn't want art by committee anymore."
I'll leave this one, with what is probably my favourite song of theirs...
(From: Wikipedia; Albumism; YouTube; Rocking My Life Away by Anthony DeCurtis)