It took Natalie Merchant nearly a year to get her singing voice back after she had emergency surgery on her spine, and the singer-songwriter thought she might never perform again.
"It took me to a place of panic," the former 10,000 Maniacs frontwoman said."It made me wish I had made more records."
And while she tried to imagine what life would look like after singing, Merchant said a friend sent her a book of narrative poetry by Robin Robertson. JULIE ANDREWS SAYS SHE ‘WENT INTO A DEPRESSION’ AFTER LOSING HER SINGING VOICE DURING A 1997 OPERATION"I remember opening the book, reading the first chapter and writing to him immediately," the"Kind & Generous" singer said."I then sent him a copy of my box set, he sent me some of his other books and I just fell in love with language again."
She didn’t do any songwriting in that time because she said she wanted to focus on raising her daughter, now an adult."Lyric writing demands solitude, and when I am in that state there is no eating, no stopping. I won't leave the house for days until it's done," she explained."I did not want to do that to my daughter. I did not want to be one of those artists that valued my work more than my child.
During her correspondence with Robertson, she realized her singing voice had come back, nine months after her surgery. She later began writing songs inspired by her correspondence with the poet and the coronavirus pandemic.
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