First rising to fame at the helm of the popular folk-rock band 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchant subsequently enjoyed even greater success as a solo performer as her plaintive vocals and literate, socially-conscious songs established her among the preeminent female performers in contemporary pop. Born in Jamestown, New York, Merchant joined 10,000 Maniacs at the age of 17, quickly becoming the band's driving artistic force; they signed to Elektra in 1985 and emerged among the most popular acts in alternative rock, shooting into the Top 40 with 1987's superb In My Tribe. However, around the time of recording 1992's Our Time in Eden, Merchant gave her band mates two years notice, and after the release of 1994's MTV Unplugged, she publicly announced she was leaving their ranks. Her 1995 solo debut, Tigerlily, debuted just shy of the Top Ten, scoring a hit single with "Carnival; " it was followed in 1998 by Ophelia. Merchant launched a folk tour in 2000. She returned with Motherland. Two years later, Merchant left Elektra's roster and formed her own independent label, Myth America, in order to issue House Carpenter's Daughter, a collection of traditional and contemporary folk music inspired by the 2000 tour. As the decade drew to a close, Merchant began making plans for a new album, which eventually arrived in the form of 2010's Leave Your Sleep. More recently, she released Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings in 2015, and she continues to tour the world.