ALA 2010 Annual Conference Program and Exhibit Directory

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Natalie Merchant, acclaimed songwriter and
performer, will share and discuss selections from
her newly released Leave Your Sleep, a 2CD set
of songs adapted from the works of various classic
and contemporary poets. The album – her first
studio recording since 2003 – is the culmination
of six years of research and collaboration and is,
in Merchant’s words, “The most elaborate project
I have ever completed or even imagined.”
Featured are works by British Victorians, earlyand
mid-20th century Americans and contemporary
writers as well as anonymous nursery rhymes and
lullabies. Among the authors included are Ogden
Nash, E.E. Cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson,
Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley
Hopkins and Robert Graves. In addition to a new
method of lyricism, Merchant stretches out
musically on Leave Your Sleep by collaborating
with a broad spectrum of artists including the
Wynton Marsalis, Medeski Martin & Wood, The
Fairfield Four, The Chinese Music Ensemble of New
York, the Ditty Bops, members of the New York
Philharmonic, The Klezmatics, Lúnasa and Hazmat
Modine.
Natalie debuted Leave Your Sleep for thousands
of librarians at the PLA Conference in March of