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Leave Your Sleep, Nonesuch Records 2010 Hazmat Modine: Rich Huntley - drums; Pete Smith - banjo; Steve Elson - clarinet, baritone saxophone; Pem Fleming - trumpet; Michael Gomez - lap steel; Wade Schuman - diatonic harmonica; William Barrett - chromatic harmonica; Joseph Daley - tuba. The Fairfield Four: Isaac Freedman - vocals; Edward Hall - vocals; Robert Hamlett - vocals; Joe Rice - vocals; Joseph Thompson - voc. The Ditty Bops: Abby de Wald - vocals; Amanda Barrett - vocals. It was six men of Indostan To learning much inclined, Who went to see the Elephant (Though all of them were blind), That each by observation Might satisfy his mind. The First approach'd the Elephant, And happening to fall Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl: "God bless me! but the Elephant Is very like a wall!" The Second, feeling of the tusk, Cried, -"Ho! what have we here So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear This wonder of an Elephant Is very like a spear!" The Third approached the animal, And happening to take The squirming trunk within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake: "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a snake!" The Fourth reached out his eager hand, And felt about the knee. "What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain," quoth he, "'Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!" The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: "E'en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can, This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!" The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope, Then, seizing on the swinging tail That fell within his scope, "I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a rope!" And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong! So oft in theologic wars, The disputants, I ween, Rail on in utter ignorance Of what each other mean, And prate about an Elephant Not one of them has seen! (John Godfrey Saxe) Co-produced by Merchant and Andres Levin, the double-disc "Leave Your Sleep" contains 26 new songs recorded live in the studio. She used the poems, anonymous nursery rhymes, and lullabies of 19th and 20th century British and American writers as source material and set them to original music. Among the authors included are Ogden Nash, e.e. cummings, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Edward Lear, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mervyn Peake, Eleanor Farjeon, Nathalia Crane, and Robert Graves. Poetry is but one part of the story, however. Merchant composed music from across the genre spectrum: New Orleans swing on "Bleezer's Ice Cream" (Jack Prelutsky) and Crane's "The Janitor's Boy" are performed by Merchant fronting the Wynton Marsalis Orchestra; the Yiddish folk music of "Dancing Bear" (Albert Bigelow Paine) pairs her with the Klezmatics; Peake's "It Makes a Change" is performed by Medeski, Martin & Wood with a horn section; "If No One Ever Marries Me" (Laurence Alan-Tameda) is Appalachian backporch music with hammered dulcimer, banjo, upright bass, and guitar. "The Blind Men and the Elephant" (John Godfrey Saxe) is cabaret jazz played by Hazmat Modine with the Fairfield Four and the Ditty Bops on backing vocals. Stevenson's "Land of Nod" is a gorgeous orchestral piece with a Celtic flavor. Speaking of Celtic, Rosetti's "Crying, My Little One" is performed by Lunasa backing Merchant. Through it all, of course, is that voice, Merchant's throaty trademark. It expresses itself emotionally, honestly, and precisely, without resorting to dramatic tropes to get meaning across. The album closes first with Hopkins' contemplative, melancholy "Spring and Fall: To a Young Child," with a symphony orchestrated by Merchant and Sean O'Loughlin, and finally with Lydia Huntley Sigourney's haunting "Indian Names" by a string quartet accompanied by Joseph Fire Crow on Native American flutes, drums, rattles, and narrative, with chanting by Jennifer Kreisberg. It sends the set off much where it begins, illustrating poetry's ability to provide its own musical instruction, comfort, poignancy, and sense of wonder to the experience of everyday living. Merchant succeeds in spades; the extensive research and discipline pay off handsomely. Leave Your Sleep is easily her most ambitious work, yet because of that welcoming voice, it provides familiarity enough to gather listeners inside this world of sound. (All Music Guide review) Buy this record!