has always gone her own way. From her days as the swaying 1980s flower frontwoman of 10,000 Maniacs to her success as a singer-songwriter of bluesy folk ballads in the ’90s, she never bothered with boring conventions of pop princess imagery or pandered to the radio’s demands. But she did have hits: five 10,000 Maniacs songs made it onto the Billboard Top 100, and three of her own songs cracked the Top 10. Her debut solo album, “Tigerlily,” sold more than five million copies.
is honoring her with its Foundation Champion Award, for a career of rogue music-making and her “kind and generous” lifetime of social justice activism.A business question, in light of the Taylor Swift situation, is: You held on to your publishing rights, correct? “Wonder” has become an anthem for children with severe physical and developmental challenges. I’ve sung the song with a blind choir at Perkins School [for the Blind], and it was used as theme song for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Doctors have told me that the’ve seen the poem over cribs of children in neonatal intensive care units. So the motivation was twofold: it was how the the songs changed for me, and a second attempt to render them in the studio.It was excellent.
It coincided with getting pregnant and stepping away. The sky started to fall for the music industry at the same moment when I decided I’d had a really good, 20-year career, and I wanted to start a family. I was 40. I had recorded this record of songs [“The House Carpenter’s Daughter”], and I didn’t think Elektra would be interested in it anyway. So I asked if I could leave the label. They said yes, and then I just put it out.