By Jay N. Miller
- 'Shame' is due out June 4
- Kristen Merlin is eyeing an August date at the Marshfield Fair
- Merlin calls the return of live music 'wild and heartwarming'
Just as the music world is starting to emerge from the pandemic and all its restrictions, Hanson’s Kristen Merlin has a hot new single being released June 4that ought to vault her back into the forefront of young pop and country talent.
Merlin, who is best known as a top five finalist (finishing third eventually) on season 6 ofthe TVsinging competition "The Voice," back in 2014, wrote the new single “Shame” with veteran Nashville songsmiths Catt Gravitt and Jake Rose. Its message of empowerment and individuality plays into themes that have colored her whole career, but the tune has also caught the attention of The Human Rights Campaign.That organization has adopted the song and provided a link to it on the care packages they created for their virtual Pride Month in June. It should give the song a jump-start, and Merlin’s heartfelt lyrics and flawless delivery should do the rest to bring the song to widespread popularity.
Like almost every other musician in America, Merlin found herself suddenly sidelined back in March 2020 when the music world shut down. She’s had to improvise and find new ways to create and get her music out there.
More:Twist and shout – the Divas are back and 'excited to get back on stage' in Norwell
More:Music Scene: Local singer Jesse Ahern sings about 'Heartache and Love' on new album
“I guess I’ve spent the past year learning how to pivot,” said Merlin, 36, by phone from her Nashville home last week. “It has actually been kind of cool, finding how to re-invent myself and how to connect with music fans. I felt stuck at first, but instead of unraveling, I began to look again at social media. I’d always had a love-hate relationship with that stuff, but it turned out to be a new chapter for me.
“I tried some Facebook and Instagram things, and then found myself joining TikTok in July,” Merlin noted. “In a crazy, funny way, it became a way to exponentially expand my fan base. I had gone into it thinking they would have a much younger fan base, but I found out TikTok has basically the same fan base as our typical show does. It’s a very diverse fan base, with some proud grandmas on there who show more online know-how than I do. “
But like many of us, the isolation of the pandemic led to some soul-searching too.
“I looked at it as an opportunity for growth,” said Merlin. “I took time for a personal re-set. We were not able to be out, of course, so I took the time for a lot of self-care. I didn’t realize how much work I needed, but I did a lot of reading. I had been at a college convention, performing for their booking people, when everything shut down. Suddenly half the schools were not showing up, and the rest were all leaving, so we were all scrambling. In that moment, last March, I went from a full calendar to no shows at all, so that was a big shock.”
Merlin busied herself with some co-writing sessions by Zoom, and then was overjoyed when restrictions were lifted a bit, allowing for some socially-distanced studio sessions.
“After not being allowed to be on the road for pretty much a whole year, it was cool to see some socially distanced shows,” she said. “But it wasn’t the same, and more distance between people, and the stage, made it feel like less of a connection. I think with music coming back fully now, there’s going to be so much joy with the audiences and performers, appreciating what we have more than ever before.”
“Clubs and such opened a week ago in Nashville, and it is wild, and heartwarming,” Merlin noted. “The city is alive again.”
More:Music Scene: Weymouth singer-songwriter Jay Psaros 'can't wait to get back in action'
More:Marshfield promoter aims for 'a great day of music' with upcoming live shows in Plymouth
“Shame” is the product of a co-writing session, when her writing partners pushed Merlin to look inside herself.Her music has always been known for its candid and unflinching honesty, as well as for her warm and evocative vocals. But this session surprised even her.
“I tried to keep at writing during the quarantine, through Zoom,” Merlin explained. “I had gotten into that a bit. But nothing is like writing and being in the same room with someone, together. Ideas just flow differently. Although I had some fun co-writes in Zoom, I much prefer in person. When I lived in Boston I wrote alone, but down here some of my best times have been co-writes. When you have more brains in a room, a song often just blossoms, sometimes when no one sees it coming.”
“I didn’t even know what I wanted to write about when we began the co-writing session with Catt and Jake,” Merlin admitted. “Catt said we should keep it ‘raw and real,’ like my previous writing, and she would ask me questions, like ‘What kind of hurdles have you come up against?’ And we’d go around the room, exchanging ideas, and we kept coming back to that idea. It all came out of that conversation — that’s a common explanation, I’ve found, to ‘how a song became a song.’”
“Shame” examines peoples’ preconceptions of each other and each other’s lives. A chorus goes “shame on the way that you’re active, shame that you can’t get past it...”It has obvious resonance, but is also universal enough to appeal to anyone who feels the weight of social expectations or ostracism.
“The visibility of The Human Rights Campaign is huge,” said Merlin. “They were eager to embrace ‘Shame’ as a song so many can relate to, not just the LBGTQ community. Of course, I was thrilled to be a part of it, and I cried when I got their message — it was very poignant moment for me. I’m very excited to have it come out.”
Merlin’s previously best known recordings were her 2015 five-song EP “Boomerang,” which reached the number two spot on the New England Heatseekers chart, and her 2019 five-song EP “Humans Being,” which hit number four on the NE Heatseekers chart, and yielded the single “Don’t Call It A Comeback.” Like much of her work on "The Voice," Merlin’s music on both EPs straddles the country and pop genres, with the purity of her tone making the music’s emotional content that much more resonant.
Merlin is starting to look into getting a tour together, and among her many potential dates is a return trip to the Marshfield Fair in late August.
“A lot was on pause for the past year, but we are getting to the point of putting a tour together,” she said. “Plans are being made, and we are looking into some travel. We are even trying to get back to the Marshfield Fair, going back and forth on dates right now.I haven’t been back to Massachusetts since February 9, 2020, so it has been a long time. I had moved down to Nashville seven years ago, and usually I’d be getting back home every month or two, so it was a weird feeling being cut off from my family that long. It is exciting to think of everything opening up again, going from zero to 60, and getting back up there is part of it for me.”
As for recording, Merlin is focused on “Shame” and its imminent debut, with the thought of a follow up single just beginning to become a factor.
“I am looking towards the next single, although I am still hyper-focused on ‘Shame,’” Merlin said. “You have to be ready for the next step up, but I am always interested to see how fans react to a release like this. That will partly determine what is best for a follow-up, although like all of my music, I suspect it will always be something strongly connected to people’s emotions.”
Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. Please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Patriot Ledger subscription.
