On tour, Natalie Merchant finds her fans singing along to new songs, original hits

“People have been so accepting of the new material,” said Merchant during a recent phone interview from her home in New York’s Hudson Valley.

At back-to-back sold-out performances earlier this month at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston, audience members responded enthusiastically to songs from “Keep Your Courage,” singing along and standing up and dancing to the more upbeat tunes.

Merchant, 59, will be in Providence on June 28, backed by the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. She has performed multiple concerts on the current tour with orchestras, and said her music — especially some of the songs from “Keep Your Courage” — lends itself to a full symphonic orchestra.

“‘Sister Tilly’ and ‘Big Girls’ especially have been transcendent with an orchestra,” she said of two of the 10 numbers on her newest release.

Because the album was made largely during the COVID lockdown, studio capacity was limited, which made for an “unusual” recording process, Merchant recalled.

“We had to put the core band down first, then they would go home and then everyone would test and get ready and come in for the next wave, which was the string quartet … and then we did the woodwinds, then we did the brass … so we never had the opportunity to be in the same room with all of the people playing on the record,” she explained. “I worked with seven arrangers and none of them — except for one — were able to come to the studio when we rehearsed and recorded.”

“It really gave us a chance to analyze the parts as we were putting them down and make sure that they were working together,” she said.

“Keep Your Courage” is Merchant’s first album of original material in nearly a decade. The main theme running through the songs — which she describes collectively as “stylistically eclectic” — is love and human connection. These were recurring subjects for Merchant during the COVID-19 lockdown.

“There was an isolation during the pandemic and a craving to connect with other people,” she said. “I was lucky that I was with my daughter [who is now 19] for the whole lockdown, but we both missed other people.”

While down time during the pandemic helped fuel her creative process, Merchant said she also found inspiration in the wake of a medical scare where she learned that she had a degenerative spinal disease and needed emergency surgery.

“I spent the first couple of months of the lockdown in a kind of compromised situation with a neck brace and not being able to have any follow-up care. And the nerves in my right hand were severely impinged and affected. … I couldn’t make a fist and I couldn’t play the piano,” she recalled. “When I took the neck brace off, I had a lot of trouble with my voice.”

“Regaining the use of my hands, which took months, so that I could play piano again, and being able to sing again, which also took months – when I wasn’t certain I would ever be able to do either again: sing or play the piano – was significant,” Merchant said. “It was scary, but they were obstacles I overcame and there’s something inspirational about that.”

“Inspiration” is a word that is often used by fans when asked about the impact of Merchant’s music.

“I’m appreciative,” she said of her loyal fan base. “A lot of people say that my music helped them through a difficult time, and a lot of people say, ‘My mother listened to you and now I listen to you,’ so maybe there’s a sentimental connection and people feel like I’m a part of their lives. And I know what that feels like, because there are certain artists that I’ve listened to for so long and so deeply that they are integrated in [my life].”

She cited Aretha Franklin, who “feels like an auntie,” and Bob Dylan – who she joked would be a “cranky uncle.”

Merchant, who has an unmistakable voice and emotional delivery, said the fact that her music “isn’t cynical and is pretty earnest” also seems to resonate with fans. “It’s honest,” she said.

As she gets older, Merchant said she appreciates is more appreciative of her fans’ unwavering support — and the fact that they make the effort to go to her concerts — even more.

“That’s something I didn’t even think about when I was younger. I was like, ‘Oh, we’re doing a concert and people are here.’ But I didn’t think about the effort that was involved, in part due to the fact that my life was all music,” she said. “But once you have your own family and a house and parents who depend on you or whatever, the amount of time you have to spend [on] something you enjoy — that sliver of the pie graph — gets more and more narrow.”

Merchant said with so many artists on tour right now since pandemic restrictions have been lifted, she realizes, “people are making a decision to spend their time to come see me, and I’m really appreciative.”

She said she also finds it “very validating.”

“I stepped away from [frequent] touring to become a mom and really focused on mothering and being a reliable member of my community, which was my priority and was really important,” Merchant said. “I’m so glad I did it, but it’s very validating to come back after all these years and people are still interested in what you have to say.”

Ever the social justice warrior and political activist, spending much of her time working for environmental causes and youth educational initiatives (she even taught at a Head Start program while on a touring hiatus), Merchant was recently appointed by US Senator Chuck Schumer to serve on the board of trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

“I’ve been down [to Washington, D.C.] four times to meet with people and attended the first board meeting, and I think it’s absolutely fascinating the work they’re doing. It’s mind-boggling,” she said. “They’re not only preserving folk culture, but they’re promoting contemporary forms of folk culture. I’ve really become fascinated by what constitutes folk culture.”

During her six-year appointment, Merchant said she plans to focus in large part on exposing children to folk music — something she has already been doing for years.

“I just feel like a lot of the traditional games and songs have been forgotten. There’s been a threat of that happening probably since radio came about and we became a more interconnected culture, right?” she said. “And a cultural form started to die away and be replaced by mass media. I really feel like children would benefit from knowing more ... so that is something that I would love to do under the auspices of the Library of Congress.”

And while her activism is continuing at full speed, so is Merchant’s passion for her musical pursuits and the connection she is making with her fans on her current 37-city world tour.

She said the feedback she is getting from her audiences (at shows that are nearly always sold out) is “unbelievable” and she thinks that those coming to her orchestral shows — like the upcoming one in Providence — will be surprised at how some of her previously-released songs that are void of symphonic instruments and lush orchestral arrangements “come to life” with a symphony.

“We have a really large repertoire and are excited to share it with people,” she said. “It’s an emotional journey — for me and for them.”

Juliet Pennington can be reached at writeonjuliet@comcast.net.