Natalie Merchant has grey hair
Look, Natalie Merchant has beautiful grey hair.
You can see her here in full flight!

Photo by Arnold Gatilao
I only discovered her amazing voice a couple of years ago after @catherinecronintweeted this TED Talk - where she 'sang old poems to life' and featured her 'Leave Your Sleep' project. I was immediately taken with her independence of spirit and the way she had reached back into history to create musical myths from the words of writers from the past - many of whom I had never encountered before. She was an education in poetry and music. I bought the record - the first of many - and my youngest child, in particular knows the words of most of the songs by heart.
This was more than just the music, for me, it was a re-awakening to poetry. In national school, I had experienced poetry through the metre-stick teaching method and I came to hate it. There was no joy there, no feeling. Merchant talked of coming late to poetry and how it only came alive for her when she felt in her own mouth - and I related to that. I was getting a second chance to feel poems and her work added so much to that experience.
In this interview, Merchant talks of her 'plan to age gracefully in this field. I ain't goin' to be shakin' ma booty when I'm 55 - that's not what I"m doing. [Laughs] There's so much music that I've wanted to write and that I've been interested in that didn't really fit in to a pop album format... and now's my time to start exploring and carrying through on those visions.' Which brings us back to the grey.
My hair was good and grey at the age of 25 - just like my mother (but you didn't hear that from me) and her mother before her. When I got married my mother 'persuaded' me to dye it and somehow I got seduced by the practice. By 2009 though, I was well sick of the whole thing. A local Sligo businesswoman, Martina Hamilton had impressed me with her grey chic and one Monday afternoon, decided I was letting my grey out.
Joanne turned out to be a smart, glamorous Donegal woman with a husky voice, a big heart and dirty laugh. Shouldn't you be talking me out of this?' I asked. 'No, you've got the wrong woman for that', says she. And with that she took her scissors to my shoulder-length hair - starting at the top of my head and cut a big swarth within an inch of my scalp. The point-of no return. Well, it took a few weeks for the last of the black to fade away - but eventually I got down to what was just me. Since then, I've been back to Joanne every few weeks and we've shared our stories, our ups and downs, our kids ups and downs, losses and joys.
This blog has been mostly about education - so to wrap this up, here's the education bit. Here is how one school has taken her 'Leave Your Sleep' album - originally conceived and written for her own daughter - and used it to create real connections between children, music and poetry. The highlight was a visit by Natalie - look how she interacts with the children and encourages them to perform. She's powerful. Pure grey power.