Natalie Merchant
Photo: WEA/Elektra

Natalie Merchant has enlisted producer T Bone Burnett for her next album, Motherland, due out November 6.

Guests on the album include the Wallflowers and singer/songwriters Freedy Johnston, Gillian Welch and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, according to Elektra Records. Burnett's production credits include the Wallflowers' Bringing Down the Horse (1996) as well as last year's "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, which featured Welch on one cut.

While the final track list is undetermined, song titles so far include "Try to Hurt You," "Put the Law on You," "Saint Judas" and "The House Is on Fire." The release marks Merchant's first studio effort since 1998's Ophelia, which included the hit "Kind & Generous." Live in Concert (1999) featured several musicians who appear on Motherland, including guitarists Gabriel Gordon and Eric Della Penna, bassist Graham Maby and keyboardist Elizabeth Steen.

• Natalie Merchant
• The Wallflowers

Jeff Tweedy
Photo: MTV news

Woody Guthrie's land is your land, the folk legend's daughter says, figuratively, to Billy Bragg and Wilco in an upcoming documentary.

The political Brit folk-rocker and the alt-country band recorded 1998's Grammy-nominated Mermaid Avenue and last year's Mermaid Avenue Volume 2 — two acclaimed albums of songs using previously unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics his daughter discovered in her father's notebooks.

"Man in the Sand," a behind-the-scenes portrait of the making of the first album, which will include five unreleased tracks, is due March 27 on Rykovision, the film division of the Rykodisc record label.

The DVD and VHS release centers on Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, who uncovered notebooks filled with words Woody scribbled down throughout his career. She then recruited Bragg and Wilco to write music for the lyrics and record the songs.

"Man in the Sand" also documents the contributions singer Natalie Merchant and guitarist Corey Harris made to the album, and it includes Bragg's original Mermaid Avenue demos.

Woody Guthrie, who wrote the perennial classics "This Land Is Your Land" and "Do-Re-Mi," died in 1967.

In other Wilco news, drummer Ken Coomer has left the band, according to its spokesperson at Reprise Records. A statement explaining his departure has not been released.

Wilco's remaining members are in a Chicago studio, fitting recording sessions for the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 1999's Summer Teeth in between singer Jeff Tweedy's solo tour dates (see "Jeff Tweedy To Debut New Wilco Songs On Solo Tour").

• Wilco
• Woody Guthrie
• Natalie Merchant

Moby
Photo: BMG/V2

Moby and David Bowie have been added to the lineup for the 11th annual Tibet House Benefit Concert, according to organizers.

Joining the dance-music star and rock icon at the show, set for February 26 at New York’s Carnegie Hall, will be Patti Smith, a longtime contributor to the Tibet House concert; Natalie Merchant; country singer Emmylou Harris; Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog; spiritual world singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan; jazz poetry diva Dana Bryant and the Gomang monks. The event will also feature a performance from classical composer Philip Glass, who is vice president of the New York-based Tibet House organization and will serve as the concert’s artistic director.

The Tibet House Benefit Concert, which celebrates the Tibetan New Year and will this year inaugurate the Year of the Iron Snake, traditionally features unique performances and collaborations. In 2000, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio performed with former Talking Heads leader David Byrne, Smith and singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright. The Tibet House aims to preserve the endangered culture of Tibet, which has been under Chinese occupation for nearly 50 years.

• Moby
• David Bowie
• Patti Smith
• Emmylou Harris
• Natalie Merchant

Singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant and country singer Emmylou Harris will perform at the 2001 Tibet House benefit concert in New York's Carnegie Hall, according to organizers.

"There's a few vital pieces missing," Ganden Thurman, director of special projects for the Tibet House, said about the still-forming lineup for the February 26 concert, which historically has attracted several big-name musicians.

"I think it'll be a great show," Thurman added. "It's always guaranteed to be a great show. It's always unusual — they play in unique combinations."

In this year's show, for instance, Phish frontman Trey Anastasio performed with former Talking Heads leader David Byrne, Patti Smith and singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

Anastasio, who also played the 1999 Tibet House concert, will not perform at the 2001 show because of scheduling conflicts, Thurman said.

Next year's concert also is scheduled to include performances by Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog, the Gomang Tibetan Monks and classical composer Philip Glass, who serves as the event's artistic director.

The show celebrates the Tibetan New Year and serves as a fundraiser for the Manhattan-based Tibet House, which aims to preserve the endangered culture of Tibet, which has been under Chinese occupation for nearly 50 years.

• Emmylou Harris
• Natalie Merchant

Natalie Merchant, Duncan Sheik, Morcheeba and the Roots are among the musicians that have signed on for a one-off promotional concert scheduled for October 6 in New York City to help celebrate the release of "Red Hot + Rhapsody," the new benefit album for AIDS relief from the Red Hot Organization.

Co-sponsored by "Details" magazine and Levi's Jeans, the event will feature performances from most of the artists appearing on "Red Hot + Rhapsody," an album of contemporary artists covering George Gershwin songs that is the latest album from the Red Hot Organization aimed at raising funds for AIDS relief.

Duncan Sheik, whose own new album, "Humming," arrives in stores next month, spoke with MTV News Online recently about his contribution to the "Red Hot + Rhapsody," a cover of a song Gershwin originally penned for his 1930 musical, "Girl Crazy."

Sheik said, "and recorded it with another group of really amazing kind jazz musicians ... And that was pretty cool, because I guess I've ended up doing a couple of covers [in my career], and it's also nice to be able to reinterpret and modernize a really great and classic song. You can kind of have fun with it." [28.8 RealAudio]

"Red Hot + Rhapsody" is due out on October 6, and will feature the following artists:

• Morcheeba and Hulbert Lewis - "Summertime"
• Finley Quaye - "It Ain't Necessarily So"
• Natalie Merchant - "But Not for Me"
• Smoke City - "They Can't Take That Away from Me"
• Spearhead and Ernest Ranglin - "I Got Plenty o' Nuthin'"
• Bobby Womack and the Roots - "Summertime"
• Davina - "I Was Doing All Right"
• Duncan Sheik - "Embraceable You"
• Clark Terry - "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"
• Luscious Jackson - "I've Got a Crush on You"
• Money Mark - "Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin"
• Majestic 12 - "Nice Work If You Can Get It"
• Sarah Cracknell and Kid Loco - "The Man I Love"
• Skylab - "'S Wonderful/Rhapsody in Blue"
• Sinead O'Connor - "Someone to Watch Over Me"
• Baaba Maal - "Bess, You Is My Woman Now"
• David Bowie and Angelo Badalamenti - "A Foggy Day (A London Town)"

• Natalie Merchant
• Duncan Sheik

Natalie Merchant is winding down her two month Lilith Fair stint over the next few days, including shows slated for today and tomorrow in Milwaukee.

Merchant started Lilith barely a month after releasing her second solo effort, "Ophelia," and as she recently told MTV News, singing unfamiliar songs can be a challenge for both the audience -- and the performer.

"The exciting thing of going on tour when you haven't had the record out too long," she explained, "and you haven't burned out on performing the songs is that you're still discovering what they mean to you live and how to convey them to the audience."

"Especially in our set during the song 'Life is Sweet,'" Merchant said. "It was kind of lengthy and the arrangement is a bit unorthodox, so it demands attention from the audience, especially when your record has only been out for a month. But there are different techniques and gestures for pulling an audience into a song that might confound them a little at first."

Many of Merchant's friends come out for guest spots on "Ophelia," including Karen Peris of Innocence Mission and N'Dea Davenport, formerly of the Brand New Heavies, who has just wrapped a video with the former 10,000 Maniacs singer for her next single, "Break Your Heart."

• Natalie Merchant
• Innocence Mission
• Ndea Davenport

While artists on other high-profile summer tours may face the threat of flying shoes or bottles that come hurtling from the audience, performers on Lilith Fair live with the danger of being pelted by sunflowers.

Such was apparently the case last weekend, as "Variety" reports that the tour's stop at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California found Natalie Merchant taking a handful of sunflowers (an offering from a fan) squarely in the mouth.

The errant toss reportedly prompted Merchant to say, "That hurt like hell, but they are beautiful."

"Variety" notes that the incident didn't damper Merchant or her set, which was heavy with material from her latest album "Ophelia."

Merchant and Sarah McLachlan, the Indigo Girls, Sinead O'Connor, and their fellow Lilith performers will next play Oklahoma City on Wednesday and Bonner Springs, Kansas on Thursday (for a complete itinerary, see and to see where Lilith and every other summer tour will be, check out our Tour Tracker).

• Natalie Merchant
• Sarah McLachlan
• The Indigo Girls
• Sinéad O'Connor

As this year's summer concert season takes a more definite shape, it's becoming easier and easier to separate the winners (Lilith Fair, Ozzfest) from the losers (Lollapalooza, R.O.A.R.), and the measurement for such tours success is becoming less a question of music than that of business.

At the press conference announcing this year's Lilith Fair itinerary, McLachlan spoke about the business reasons behind the demise of this summer's Lollapalooza tour, a move which she characterized as being "very wise."

"As far as Lollapalooza," McLachlan said, " I really don't know much about it, except that they chose not to put on a show this year because they couldn't find a headliner. And I think that that's a very wise move in that case, because, in the situation that we're in, it becomes big business."

"If you have two bad weeks," McLachlan continued, So, I think it's very wise of them to take a year off."

The Lilith Fair launches June 19 in Portland, Oregon with McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, the Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu and Sinead O'Connor on the bill.

• Sarah McLachlan
• Natalie Merchant
• The Indigo Girls
• Erykah Badu
• Sinéad O'Connor

While visiting her hometown last Friday, singer Natalie Merchant took time out to make donations in a show of support for several local youth programs.

According to the Associated Press, the former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman announced her pledge during an appearance at a Boys and Girls Club in Jamestown, New York.

Merchant did not specify the dollar amount of her financial donation, which will help fund programs for pregnant teens at the Boys and Girls Club, as well as the city's YMCA and YWCA. Merchant says she was spurred to pitch in after hearing about how more than a dozen teens from Jamestown were exposed to the AIDS virus by a single person.

As we previously reported (see "Natalie Merchant Returns With New Album, Will Co-Headline Lilith Fair"), Merchant will release a new album, "Ophelia" on May 19, after which she will head out as part of the Lilith Tour that launches a month later in Portland, Oregon.

• Natalie Merchant

Ex-10,000 Maniacs vocalist Natalie Merchant will release her second solo album, "Ophelia," on May 19. Merchant has also been tapped to co-headline this year's Lilith fair along with tour founder Sarah McLachlan.

According to Merchant, "Ophelia" marks a stylistic departure from the sparse stylings of her previous album, the triple-platinum "Tiger Lily." This time around the singer engaged specific musicians to collaborate on individual songs, including Tibetan singer Yungchen Llhamo, Innocence Mission vocalist Karen Paris, and producer extraordinaire Daniel Lanois. The results of which Merchant structured into a "concept album," with the lyrics interweaving with each other to create a "cohesive mood flowing throughout the sequence of songs."

The new record will also be accompanied by a short-film co-directed by Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward, the respective chief photographer and art director for "Rolling Stone" magazine. The 22 minute-film, which combines elements of theater, music and dance, features Merchant in seven different roles, each of which speak a different language.

Both the film and album for "Ophelia" will be previewed in major cities during the first week of May. Dates for Merchant's stint on Lilith Fair have yet to be confirmed, and there are now plans for the Fair to tour Europe in the fall. No artists or dates have been announced for Lilith's European outing, but we'll keep you informed.

• Natalie Merchant