In 2000, Donelly performed live in her first reunion with Throwing Muses at a special fan gathering called "Gut Pageant" in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at a Rhode Island festival. She continued to record and release symbol-laden, alternative folk-pop solo EPs and full-length LPs on 4AD in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Belly's
Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly retrospective was also released in 2002. As Donelly's writing continued to mature into a softer rhythmic vein than with the Belly material, allusions to motherhood were heard in songs like "Life is But a Dream" and "The Night You Saved My Life" on her 2002
Beautysleep release.
Mark Sandman, of Boston's
Morphine indie-rock group, sang on "Moonbeam Monkey." Donelly's background vocals are heard on several tracks of the 2003 self-titled Throwing Muses reunion album, which she helped promote with public performances as backing vocalist and guitarist for a few concerts in 2003. Boston
post-punk band
Mission of Burma included Donelly's backing vocals on their reunion album,
Onoffon in 2004. The same year, she released
Whiskey Tango Ghosts, a sparely arranged, acoustic album laced with Gilbert's
pedal steel guitar touches. The album's personnel included Steen on piano, Narcizo on drums, and Fisher on guitar, bass, and drums. The album's lyrics explored, in part, marital relationships and family life. Donelly has said the album's minor-key tone was influenced by "a horrible war, a horrible administration, a bleak, mean winter." She then followed that acoustic album release with three weekend shows of old and new songs performed in 2004 before audiences at The Windham, an old hotel in
Bellows Falls, Vermont. Backing Donelly in concert were Fisher on guitar, Gilbert on pedal steel and acoustic guitar,
Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders, and Joan as Policewoman,
Lou Reed, Antony and the Johnsons) on violin and backing vocals, Joe McMahon (of Señor Happy and Will Dailey) on upright bass,
Bill Janovitz (lead singer of Buffalo Tom) contributing vocals, and Arthur Johnson (of
Come) on drums. The performances were recorded by Donelly's manager, veteran producer
Gary Smith of
Fort Apache Studios, which helps operate the small concert space and recording room in The Windham's lobby. While Donelly included some of her longtime lyrical allusions to nature imagery, such as bees and honey, in the songs recorded at the Vermont concerts, she said that some of her new material reflected a more direct approach, relying less on symbolic analogy. The topics of religion and spiritual hypocrisy, which first began to interest her after her childhood automobile accident, were reflected in the lyrics to "Kundalini Slide," performed at these concerts. The album of the Vermont performances is titled
This Hungry Life and was released by
Eleven Thirty Records on October 17, 2006 in the US and October 24, 2006 in
Canada. In June 2005, Donelly mentioned on her official "Slumberland" message board that her future plans included working on a children's compilation album with Boston musicians such as Chris Toppin, writing a book, working with
Mark Eitzel and Greek songwriter Manolis Famellos, and occasionally performing live. She planned to focus future performance plans on a few cities like Boston, New York, and
London, playing live when time permitted as she raised her daughter. In March 2006, she gave birth to another daughter, Harriet Pearl Fisher. In early 2006, Donelly sang on two songs on the debut EP from the Boston-based band Dylan In The Movies. In October 2006, she recorded a cover of
Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" with producer Paul Kolderie for the
American Laundromat Records benefit CD titled
Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity. She wrote four songs for the pop girl group
Girl Authority for their second debut
Road Trip, one of which is titled "This Is My Day". Her daughter, Gracie, is a fan of the group, according to an article in
The Phoenix. Two shows at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 6, 2007, were a musical reunion of sorts, as Donelly co-headlined with Hersh. In 2008, Donelly teamed up with Dylan in the Movies to cover
the Cure's "Lovecats" for
American Laundromat Records tribute compilation
Just Like Heaven - a tribute to The Cure. They later repeated this pairing to cover
the Smiths' "Shoplifters of the World Unite" in 2011.A 2010 feature in
Spin Magazine profiled Donelly's new career as a
postpartum doula. In December 2010, Donelly teamed up once again with singer and songwriter Brian Sullivan's band, Dylan In The Movies, to release the single "Girl With the Black Tights" on American Laundromat Records. Donelly shares a co-writing credit and sings on the track, which was later included on his album release in 2014. In August 2013, Donelly surprised her audience by announcing a series of extended plays to be issued online. Each release featured songs co-written with friends, musicians and previous collaborators including authors. The first volume contained five songs; "Mass Ave" (for which a video was also released), "Christopher Street", "Let Fall The Sky", "Blame The Muse", and "Meteor Shower". In a rare and extensive interview on a podcast by UK music website The Mouth Magazine, Donelly announced that the series was her way of taking control of an exit strategy as she retired from the music industry. The recordings from the 5 EPs were released as a 31 track compilation, the Swan Song Series.[https://www.alr-music.com/products/tanya-donelly-swan-song-series In early February 2016, the official Belly website announced the group would reform to play shows in Europe the following July and, subsequently, North America. The group released a new album,
Dove, in 2018. They took a hiatus after 2018, but have toured again since 2023. An album of covers with the Parkington Sisters was released in 2020, including of tracks by Leonard Cohen and her oft stated influence,
Mary Margaret O'Hara. Donelly was slated to compose the score for the 2022 animated film
Luck, but was replaced by
John Debney. In 2020, Donelly formed a new duo with long time collaborator Brian Sullivan, entitled The Loyal Seas. The debut single "Strange Mornings in the Garden" was released in December 2020. The duo's debut album
Strange Mornings In the Garden followed in 2022. In 2026, Donelly and
Chris Brokaw released "The Undone Is Done Again" on Fire Records, containing tracks that are adaptations of Medieval music, with lyrics in the original Latin and minimal instrumentation. ==Personal life==