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Biography
Infobox musical artist| |name = Tift Merritt|image = TiftMerritt.jpg|caption = Merritt performing on October 9, 2005 at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival , North Carolina|N.C. |image_size = |background = solo_singer|birth_name = Catherine Tift Merrittcite book|last=Whitburn|first=Joel|title=Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008|publisher=Record Research, Inc|year=2008|page=275|isbn=0-89820-177-2|alias =|Born = Birth date and age|1975|01|08 Houston, Texas|Houston , Texas |death_date =|origin = Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh , North Carolina , United States|U.S. |instrument = Singing|Vocals Guitar Keyboard instrument|Keyboards Piano Harmonica |genre = Folk music|Folk Rock music|Rock Alternative country |occupation = Musician Songwriter |years_active = 1998–present|label = Lost Highway Records|Lost Highway , Fantasy Records|Fantasy |associated_acts = The Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt |website = http://www.tiftmerritt.com/ www.tiftmerritt.com|notable_instruments= Catherine Tift Merritt (born January 8, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter , musician and North Carolina native. With her longtime band, she has built what has been called a "unique" and critically acclaimed body of work of "sonic short stories and poignant performances." http://wxrt.radio.com/2010/06/02/full-album-tift-merritt-see-you-on-the-moon/ She has been compared to songwriters like Joni Mitchell cite news| url= http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164904575421813516451790.html? KEYWORDS=Tift+Merritt | work=The Wall Street Journal | title=The Secrets of Songwriters | first=John | last=Jurgensen | date=August 13, 2010 and Emmylou Harris . http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/recordings/2010/06/14/100614gore_GOAT_recordings_greenman
Merritt has released two studio album s for Lost Highway Records and two for Fantasy Records . Her live albums so far are Home Is Loud released in 2005 and Buckingham Solo released in 2009.
Biography
Early years
Merritt was born in Houston but her family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh , North Carolina soon after. Her father taught her guitar chords and how to play piano by ear to Percy Sledge and Bob Dylan songs, and she sang harmonies with him as a child. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll His eclectic record collection of Soul music|soul , Folk music|folk , R& B , Rock music|rock , and country music records influenced her both then and later; she credits his "genreless" taste with influencing her to write and perform without regard to genre herself. http://www.louisville.com/content/interview-tift-merritt-brings-soulful-rock-louisvilles-waterfront-wednesday-music
In her early twenties, though she had performed solo in public, Merritt has said she decided she was better suited for writing short stories . She enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study creative writing . There, she met Zeke Hutchins, whose band had just taken a hiatus and who had decided instead to become a school teacher. "With his encouragement and a big box of LPs from the 1970s," Merritt and Hutchins agreed to form a band. http://www.wfpk.org/waterfront-wednesday-july-2009/ Hutchins set up his drum kit in the kitchen of the farmhouse where Merritt lived, and they practiced songs at her piano.
Career
Merritt began her professional career with her band The Carbines playing small clubs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill and Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh such as The Cave, Cat's Cradle, and the front porch of the General Store in Bynum, NC. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=88570718 In 1998, The Carbines released a 7-inch single "Jukejoint Girl" b/w "Cowboy". In 1999, Merritt made a guest appearance on a seven-song Extended play|EP on the by Yep Roc Records|Yep Rock label with the Two Dollar Pistols, led by John Howie, Jr. The record was called The Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt . The EP featured two original tunes and five cover songs . http://store.yeproc.com/artist.php? id=750 In 2000, she won MerleFest 's Chris Austin Songwriting Contest, http://www.merlefest.org/content.aspx? id=44 Merlefest's Chris Austin Songwriting Contest Winners found a manager, and signed a contract with Lost Highway Records .
In 2002, Merritt released her debut album, Bramble Rose , containing eleven original songs recorded with her long-time band and produced by Ethan Johns . The record landed on the top ten lists for both Time (magazine)|Time and the The New Yorker , and was called the best debut of the year in any genre by the Associated Press . http://www.grandcentralmusic.com/music/ A song from the album, "Trouble Over Me", was featured in writer Nick Hornby 's 31 Songs .Nick Hornby, 31 Songs (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2003), p. 193. While touring to promote Bramble Rose, Merritt opened for fellow North Carolinian Ryan Adams , who had helped her secure her first management and record contracts.cite news| url= http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53152-2005Apr14.html | work=The Washington Post | title=Start of rightcontent.inc | first=Richard | last=Harrington | date=April 15, 2005
Her follow-up release, 2004's Tambourine (album)|Tambourine , was produced by George Drakoulias and featured backing by Benmont Tench , Mike Campbell (musician)|Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ), Neal Casal and Don Heffington (of Emmylou Harris 's Hot Band and Lone Justice ). Tambourine was honored with a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Country Album nomination, though its sound was frequently described in quite different terms, such as "rock-soul throwdown". http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=4146090 In 2005, Merritt and Tambourine were also nominated for three Americana Music Awards by the Americana Music Association : Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year for "Good Hearted Man". http://abccountry.net.au/artist/tift-merritt During the tour to promote Tambourine , Merritt opened for Elvis Costello and recorded Austin City Limits —a performance later released as a DVD by New West Records . http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000VI4UUC The sold-out homecoming concert for the tour—at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina—was recorded for a live album release; Home Is Loud was released in 2005 and re-released by the German label Blue Rose Records with bonus tracks in November 2009. http://www.bluerose-records.de/
After extensive touring behind Tambourine , Merritt rented an apartment in Paris, where she wrote the songs that would become 2008's Another Country album. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/i-felt-like-another-country-myself-an-interview-with-tift-merritt Before signing with a new label and making that record, Merritt performed Dylan's " A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall " at the I'm Not There tribute concert at New York City's Beacon Theatre (New York City)|Beacon Theater on November 7, 2007, with guitarist Joe Henry . According to the New York Times review, Merritt had "the night's purest voice."cite news| url= http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/arts/09dylan-sub.html | work=The New York Times | title=A Tribute to Bob Dylan, Both Reverent and Rowdy | first=Jon | last=Pareles | date=November 9, 2007
Released on Fantasy Records in 2008, Another Country featured the core of Merritt's long-time band, along with guitarist Charlie Sexton (Bob Dylan), and again with Drakoulias at the helm. Another Country continued the trend of high-profile favorable press for Merritt's releases. Emmylou Harris said, "I first heard Tift Merritt some years ago during a writers' night at a small club. She stood out like a diamond in a coal patch and everyone there knew she carried a promise of great things to come. She has more than fulfilled that promise with Another Country ." Paste (magazine)|Paste magazine gave the album a four-star review, calling Merritt "a force to be reckoned with in any genre she approaches." http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/assets/documents01/Artists/Tift-Merritt/FAN-31965-02/See-You-On-The-Moon-Bio-And-Album-Credits-Hi.pdf The song "Broken" from Another Country was nominated for an Americana Music Award for Song of the Year. http://folkmusic.about.com/od/awardsetc1/qt/Americana2008.htm The Another Country tour played the Newport Folk Festival , Bonaroo , and in 2009, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival ,cite web|url= http://www.efmf.ab.ca/004.performers/004-01i.alpha-list/performers-alphalist.M.htm|title=Edmonton Folk Music Festival/Festival Archive|year=2010|work=Official Website|publisher=Edmonton Folk Music Festival|pages=Festival Archive/Past Performers 2009 (M)|accessdate=9 January 2011 and MerleFest . On the Another Country tour, Merritt made runs in both the US and the UK with fellow singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson . http://www.livedaily.com/news/tift-merritt-tickets-and-tour-dates-tift-merritt-keeps-working-the-road-14373.html
Buckingham Solo , recorded in England, is an intimate acoustic solo concert recording made during the Another Country touring, and released on the Fantasy label in April 2009. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002DEZTJ8
Please Break the Silence of the Middle of the Night , an iTunes EP, was released later in 2008. http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/please-break-silence-middle/id290378257 The EP contains two alternate versions of songs from Another Country , a cover of George Harrison s "I Live For You", an outtake from the Another Country sessions, "Last To Know", and "Wayward And Weary," recorded for the film Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson .
Performance highlights of the later Another Country tour and immediately after it included opening an outdoor show in Santa Monica, California for folk singer Joan Baez , http://www.santamonicadispatch.com/2009/07/joan-baez-appears-on-pier-tonight/ opening the Pine Cone Winter Music Festival in her hometown of Raleigh for Kris Kristofferson , http://www.pinecone.org/wintermusicfest.html and singing the " The Star-Spangled Banner " for then-Senator Barack Obama at his last campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina before winning the 2008 US Presidential election . http://blogs.newsobserver.com/beat/tift-merritt-sings-for-change
Merritt recorded the follow-up to 2008's Another Country http://www.overdublane.com Overdub Lane in Durham with producer Tucker Martine . The album, See You On The Moon , was released June 1, 2010 on Fantasy Records . My Morning Jacket frontman Yim Yames ( Jim James ) is featured on the track "Feel of the World". http://music.mync.com/2010/03/tift-merritts-see-you-on-the-moon-gets-tracked-and-covered/ Again, a review in The New Yorker specified moments on the record to other singers, including Emmylou Harris, Judy Collins , and additionally U2 ; and The Wall Street Journal included her in a weekend feature on singer-songwriters, placing her "in the tradition of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Leonard Cohen .
Touring for Moon began in June 2010 and continueed for over a year in North America, Europe, and the UK. In addition to headlining dates in North America and the UK, Merritt has supported Emmylou Harris , Elvis Costello , Amos Lee , Josh Ritter , Patty Griffin , Mary Chapin Carpenter , David Gray (musician)|David Gray , Ray LaMontagne , Iron & Wine , and Gregg Allman .
Merritt is also a photographer; her first gallery exhibition, Other Countries , ran at http://www.themahlerfineart.com The Mahler Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina in May 2009. She also hosts an artist-to-artist interview radio show called The Spark with Tift Merritt which is produced by KRTS in Marfa, Texas, and whose guests have included Nick Hornby , Kiki Smith , and poet C. K. Williams among others. http://www.tiftmerritt.net/Biography.aspx Episodes of The Spark stream on the show's http://www.marfaspark.com website and are available as a free podcast .
In 2009, Merritt married Zeke Hutchins, her band's drummer and her long-time partner, in New York City , where they currently reside.cite news|url= http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20100716/ENT/307160006/1005/ent|title=Tift Merritt makes her own brand of music at Asheville's Orange Peel|last=Jones|first=Amy|work= Asheville Citizen-Times |date=2010-07-16|accessdate=2010-07-16Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot
Film & TV
In addition to Austin City Limits , Merritt has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman . Her music has appeared in The L Word , Men In Trees , United States of Tara and the film New in Town . She has also written two songs for the upcoming animated film http://www.dorothyofozthemovie.com/ Dorothy of Oz , starring Lea Michele and Dan Aykroyd , set for release in early 2012.
Discography
Studio albums
Title
Album details
Peak chart positions
US Country cite web
US cite web
US Heat cite web
US Folk cite web
Bramble Rose
Release date: June 4, 2002
Label: Lost Highway Records
Tambourine
Release date: August 24, 2004
Label: Lost Highway Records
Another Country
Release date: February 26, 2008
Label: Fantasy Records
See You on the Moon
Release date: June 1, 2010
Label: Fantasy Records
"—" denotes releases that did not chart
Live albums
Title
Album details
Home Is Loud
Release date: 2005
Label: RCAM
Buckingham Solo
Release date: June 23, 2009
Label: Vella Recordings
Extended plays
Title
Album details
The Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt
Release date: October 26, 1999
Label: Yep Roc Records
Please Break the Silence of the Middle of the Night
Persondata| NAME =Merritt, Tift | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =January 8, 1975 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Merritt, Tift Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American rock musicians Category:American country singers Category:American alternative country singers Category:American female singers Category:Musicians from North Carolina Category:Lost Highway Records artists Category:Fantasy Records artists Category:People from Raleigh, North Carolina Category:People from Houston, Texas Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
simple:Tift Merritt
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