From The Desk Of Tift Merritt: Studs Terkel

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.) Merritt will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with her.

Merritt: Studs Terkel is the Alan Lomax of oral history. It is so simple and terribly important what he did: Just ask people what happened to them. About their lives and their work. All sorts of people. Businessmen, strippers, jazz musicians, farmers, mothers. I’m reading Hard Times right now, and each interview is like a song in and of itself. I do think we need to tell stories of what we’ve seen and learned and endured, even if just to a couple of people around us. And the real stories—not by reality-TV celebrities or people who talk loudly and have microphones—are the important ones. Studs Terkel really seemed to love people. He had such a generous way of going to find them.

Video after the jump.