For a while, back in the day, it looked like 10,000 Maniacs were going to become the world’s literate American rockers of choice. REM, however, stole that mantle and the band finally split without ever really shaking off the cult tag.
Natalie Merchant’s solo career has been similarly low key, a state of affairs that The House Carpenter’s Daughter will do little to alter – although it will certainly enhance her bookish public image. An attempt to get to grips with that catch-all phrase folk music, the record confirms that Merchant knows her stuff, dipping into the great American songbook as well as casting her net further a field to take in the likes of Fairport Convention and English ballads. It’s a very reverential piece of work, obviously founded in the view that it’s the songs that should be the focus. But, ironically, the album really picks up when the backing band are given full reign to flex their muscles.
Opener ‘Sally Ann’ has a dark, gothic feel to it while the union anthem ‘Which Side Are You On’ burns with restrained anger. While it comes very much from an American angle, Merchant has an oddly English timbre to her voice in parts, even at times reminiscent of Maddy Prior, which helps to place the music in context.
It all becomes a little too worthy in parts and you can’t help yearning for a little of that Maniacs’ magic. Yet for an obvious labour of love The House Carpenter’s Daughter is a decently compelling record.