“The Painted Desert” by 10,000 Maniacs

"The Painted Desert" comes from In My Tribe, the third album by 10,000 Maniacs and their second for a major label, Elektra, the record that finally broke them to a wide audience. It belongs to a new chapter. John Lombardo, who had written alongside Natalie Merchant on the earlier records, left in 1986, and Merchant started opening the songwriting up to the rest of the band; here her partner is drummer Jerome Augustyniak.

On the record, Augustyniak doubles on percussion, Robert Buck plays guitar, mandolin and pedal steel, Dennis Drew is on keyboards, Steven Gustafson plays electric bass, and Merchant sings. Peter Asher produced, and George Massenburg recorded it and mixed it with Frank Wolf.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.