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Q&A With Tift Merritt

Tift Merritt is about as approachable as they come. An email inquiry to her press rep prompts an almost immediate response from the artist herself. “I’m happy to catch you up on what we’ve been up to lately and the like … just let me know if phone or email is better for you.” Merritt’s only stipulation: that any interview happen after 11 a.m., so she can get in her daily practice session on a piano she’s been using at a club not far from her Manhattan apartment. You could argue that, with a voice like hers, Merritt should be able to afford her dream piano by now. But while she may not be a household name (yet), she’s on a trajectory not unlike a few of her singer/songwriter luminaries (Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams), stockpiling critical plaudits and fan adoration for the four studio albums she’s released since 2002. Her most recent, See You On The Moon (Fantasy), is the scaled-back, introverted antithesis of what may be her only bid for a wider audience, 2004’s polished roots-rock zinger Tambourine. That’s the one that earned her a Grammy nod for best country album. (Guess no one bothered to tell the academy it wasn’t country.) MAGNET caught up with Merritt as she was gearing up for a series of live dates opening for the Jayhawks.

“Engine To Turn” (download):

MAGNET: You’ve moved around quite a bit over the last eight or nine years. Is it wanderlust, life events or a little of both?
Merritt: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I guess I have. Whenever I’m not on the road, I live pretty simply wherever I am, and I try to be very still. I’ve been known to get wanderlust, inside and out. I moved to Paris pretty accidentally in 2005. At first, it was a nice change from riding around in a van with a bunch of boys, but I really could’ve stayed there forever, and I wonder what my life would look like if I had.

And now you’re in New York City.
I knew there was a window of time for me to move to New York, live in a tiny space and think it was great—like living on a boat. A strong sense of place is like meeting a great character with a really strong point of view. I just love that.

You were born in Houston and raised in North Carolina. Do you get homesick for the South?
North Carolina is really a part of me and how I make sense of the world. Most of the significant things in my life started there or turn back to there. I lived in the country and by the sea (in Wilmington) for many, many years. My family is there; it’s in my bones. I think about the heat and the sounds and the feeling of walking a place I’ve memorized so well. I feel lucky to have true, real ties to a home down South, and I think that’s what gives me the desire to see other places, to make my world bigger. I’m a big believer that you have to leave home to really see home.

See You On The Moon’s spare production and restrained arrangements really breathe. A track like “Six More Days Of Rain” really could’ve been a full-on, Tambourine-style rocker. But there’s a certain unresolved tension that comes with restraint, as the song builds to the fat chorus but never quite goes there. That said, was Tambourine your one shot at a slick, commercial-sounding record?
Tambourine is something I’m so proud of. I worked with Mike Campbell, George Drakoulias and Jim Scott. There was so much time and care and emotion in that record, and what we were all trying to do was make something musically great. What interests me now is trying to get the energy and power and passion of that record into a very live, off-the-floor take that’s complete in itself. As a performer, I like that challenge. I want to reveal myself with open space and performance. I’m not that interested in overdubbing something else onto it. I think it’s a natural thing to want to pare down to the essentials as you grow. You want to lean on yourself more. It’s a great challenge.

You favor the piano as a writing tool. Who were your primary influences?
I love how Tom Waits plays the piano like it’s broken and he’s broken. I’ve always loved how Aretha Franklin, Carole King and Joni Mitchell played. I love Neil Young’s playing. But my father is really who taught me. He has this funny, awkward style with three fingers. He figured out old Percy Sledge and Otis Redding songs by ear—old country songs, anything he liked. He’d plunk it out his way and sing it his way. Watching him and singing with him was how I learned to play. There isn’t much I like more that playing piano. I can get lost in it, and time is gone. I play it more as a way to a melody than as a rhythm instrument. But whatever it is I’m doing, it’s some instinct my father showed me how to use.

Tell me about the two covers you chose for See You On The Moon.
“Live Till You Die” is an old Emitt Rhodes song. It just seemed like we could do it like Big Star—like a good, greasy summer night. “Danny’s Song” was a complete accident. Someone was saying something about Anne Murray that wasn’t as appreciative as I felt it should be, so we pulled out “Snow Bird” and then “Danny’s Song.” Her alto is incredible, and her early-’70s hair is to be followed. When everyone saw the light, (bassist) Jay (Brown) and I were just messing around, singing with a guitar, and (producer) Tucker (Martine) made us record it in a take or two. We had too many songs as it was. It was never supposed to make the record. But anybody who heard it said, “Hey, you can’t cut that one.”

—Hobart Rowland

3 replies on “Q&A With Tift Merritt”

I liked her voice when I was listening to her music. You are a complete artist: beautiful, friendly and talented. I first saw you here on the internet and now I want to be your fan.

TIft Merritt is a treasure! She can deliver tender songs with such emotion…then turn right around and rock with the best on the next song. I was once at her show on a Friday night when the socializing bar crowd got mixed in with those who were there to listen. Instead of being visibly annoyed (I was!), she stepped out from behind the mic, walked into the middle of the crowd with her guitar….and sang/wowed the crowd into silence. She is one impressive artist.

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