After her split with 10,000 Maniacs, Merchant was so eager to begin writing her own material that she went home that very day and composed the song "I May Know the Word", which was originally meant to appear on the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks movie "Philadelphia". The song was eventually cut from the soundtrack, but it would go on to appear on Merchant's debut solo album, "Tigerlily", which was released on the Elektra label in 1995. Merchant chose to name the album that as she felt it captured the album's feel, which she described as both "fierce" and "delicate".