A Second Start, Singer for 10,000 Maniacs

The Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Supremes: Rock history is littered with the remnants of great bands that have fallen apart after trying to carry on without a key member. So when singer Natalie Merchant bailed out of 10,000 Maniacs to pursue a solo career in 1993, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to assume that the Jamestown, N.Y. folk-rock band would do the big El Foldo in no time flat.

It hasn’t happened.

Not only did a reconstituted incarnation of 10,000 Maniacs--guitarist Robert Buck, drummer Jeremy Augustyniak, keyboardist Dennis Drew, bassist Steve Gustafson, guitarist John Lombardo and new vocalist and violinist Mary Ramsey--manage to secure a record contract with Geffen after severing ties with Elektra, but the band’s album, “Love Among the Ruins,” has sold a respectable 200,000 copies and its remake of Roxy Music’s “More Than This” is slowly climbing up Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. Not bad for a band that could have easily been shilling on some “Big ‘80s” package tour by now.

“I never, never thought I’d be doing this with my career,” says Ramsey. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., she recorded two albums of folk music with Lombardo for the Rykodisc label and sang backup vocals for the Maniacs on two albums, “Our Time in Eden” and “MTV Unplugged,” before joining them as a full-fledged member last year. “My focus was on the music I was making with John, but when Jeremy and Robert asked us to write with them after Natalie left, there was a real chemistry there, and that’s what appealed to me about it.”

Collaborating on a few songs is one thing; filling the shoes of an internationally beloved artist such as Merchant is quite another. For millions of fans, Merchant was 10,000 Maniacs, an enigmatic iconoclast whose artful, emotionally direct writing style and coolly detached stage presence made her a star. Her 1995 triple-platinum solo album, “Tigerlily,” has outsold every Maniacs record and established her as a legitimate solo artist. Has Ramsey felt the pressure of having to replace her?

“Natalie’s become a legend of sorts,” says Ramsey. “So there are always going to be people who aren’t comfortable with me in this role, but there are also a lot of people who understand it and are supportive of it. It’s out of my control, really.”

Merchant has been one of Ramsey’s biggest boosters. “She sent a really beautiful, encouraging letter to me, just advising me to do my own thing and not listen to critics,” Ramsey says. “I found that really touching.”

Adds Lombardo: “The only people who have really ragged on the concept are people who didn’t like Natalie or the band to begin with. It’s not like we’re using a name that doesn’t belong to us. One of the reasons Natalie left the band was that she despised the name 10,000 Maniacs so much.”

While there are obvious similarities between Ramsey and Merchant, particularly the willowy, wispy timbre of their singing voices, Lombardo sees distinct differences. “With Natalie,” he says, “the song takes a back seat to her voice, in much the same way that Van Morrison approaches his music. Mary is much more emotionally direct and sings in the service of the song.”

Merchant’s departure has also enabled the band to reassert its group identity, which these days tends to lean toward its folkie roots. “I think this band deserves its due for bringing folk back into the mainstream, and that’s something that I want to continue,” says Lombardo. “Mary is one of the best fiddle players around, and that brings a whole other dimension to the band. There’s much more guitar-violin interplay onstage now, and more improv. The new songs on the new album are also more up-tempo than the last few Maniacs albums with Natalie. It’s more like how the band used to sound before we were signed.”

A founding member of 10,000 Maniacs, Lombardo left just before the release of the band’s first major-label album, 1986’s “The Wishing Chair.”

“A lot of my favorite bands have had a lot of lineup changes over the years,” says Lombardo. “Fairport Convention went on after Richard Thompson, the Small Faces were more popular after Steve Marriot left. Look at the rebirth of Fleetwood Mac.”

While 10,000 Maniacs’ second coming has obviously attracted fans of the Merchant-era lineup to the group’s live shows, the band has tried to steer clear of cheap nostalgia trips, preferring to be judged on its new material rather than rely on fan’s familiarity with the Maniacs’ back catalog. Still, the band usually includes about five or six of its biggest hits, originally sung by Merchant, in its live set.

“The people that come to see us seem to understand what we’re all about now, and that makes it very gratifying to us,” says Ramsey. “This has been a great ride so far.”

* 10,000 Maniacs perform Wednesday at the Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. $15. (310) 276-6168.