i'm speaking this week with natalie merchant. are also sort of really involved in community activism. i know that you've been involved in the new york state anti fracking movement. that? >> i was asked to come to binghamton to perform a benefit for an ithaca-based organization because the counties around ithaca, about 80% of four of those counties had been leased over a 20-year period to the gas industry. people woke up realising that if fracking is allowed in new york state we might be looking at 40 to 80,000 fracking wells. we were also waking up to the nightmare in pennsylvania of water contamination. i went to binghamton. i had been reading about fracking, didn't understand it, didn't understand the potential impacts at the time and my eyes were opened. i met this family from pennsylvania who had a jug of contaminated water from their well and between the methane migration and the introduction of the chemicals in the fracking process, they were saying the water in our town has been destroyed. water is sacred to me. new york,

it got involved >>> i sat down with natalie merchant in new york city. thank you so much for doing this. it has been 21 years since tigerlily. when you look back at that time, did you know it was going to be a huge hit and sell millions of copies >> of course not. no >>> why do you think it was so says unanimity >>-- resonant. >> it it was honest and heart felt album. people responded to that. it was the first album that i produced myself, but at the time it was kind of my brave step forward. i had been in a band for 12 years and this was my first solo effort. i didn't want to hand it off to a producer. i wanted to do it myself >>> you actually had a lot of control over the tracks in the original tigerlily >> yeah. i funded the album myself and gave it to them when it was finished >>> did they make any changes? >> no >>> it was the album that you wanted to create. so 21 years later you've rerecorded a lot of these tracks. they're very different. what is new? >> well, the main reason that i wanted to rerecord was i have gravitated towards performing with

this week on "talk to al jazeera" sinner song writer natalie merchant >> i stumbled into this as a way of life. i had no intention of being in a band or a singer. it happened to me by accident >>> she has rerecorded her break through solo album tigerlily, but this time with a twist.

this week on "talk to al jazeera" sinner song writer natalie merchant >> i stumbled into this as a way of life. i had no intention of being in a band or a singer. it happened to me by accident >>> she has rerecorded her break through solo album tigerlily, but this time with a tw

this week on "talk to al jazeera" sinner song writer natalie merchant >> i stumbled into this as a way of life. i had no intention of being in a band or a singer. it happened to me by accident >>> she has rerecorded her break through solo album tigerlily, but this time with a twist. the essence of the songs remains unchanged >> i think tigerlily, a song like carnival is not political.