Tift Merritt

Greg Locke: Can I call you a country singer or do you take offense to that? Tift Merritt: Mmm. That depends on what kind of country you’re talking about. New country is sometimes pop music and alt-country is real country music pushed to the side. I don’t know, I don’t really believe in musical genre. I tend to think of myself as a singer/songwriter - that gives me leeway to move in a lot of different directions.

GL: Yeah, I agree. I’ve always thought it was strange that you’re classified as a country artist. I guess if someone were to just listen to your music quickly and not pay much attention that would be any easy thing to call it. Then I saw the name of your new album, Another Country, and wondered if that was some sort of pun.

TM: No. No! I don’t write about the music industry. I don’t write about marketing categories! I think sometimes people who are doing things that aren’t easily classified are up to be wrongly classified. I always say that music is not what dictates genre, marketing is what dictates genre - the plastic thingies in the record store are the reason we have genre. It’s all very weird to me.

GL: Your third album, which I just mentioned, Another Country, is produced again by George Drakoulias, right?

TM: Yes.

GL: This is your second time working with him. A little background on George for our listeners: he’s a name that not everyone knows but he is considered by some to be Rick Rubin’s right-hand man and a legend of sorts in his own …

TM: Yes!

GL: He’s produced a lot of classic albums, including albums by the Jayhawks and YouAmI and …

TM: The Black Crowes and Maria McKee!

GL: He also did your second album, Tambourine, which was very well received. He really doesn’t work with just anyone. How did you come to start working with him?

TM: [Laughs.] I handcuffed him to the door. Really, I picked up a Maria McKee cassette when I was 19 and saw his name on it. I thought “I want to work with that guy.” I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, so it was really a dream come true to work with him. I sometimes forget what a big dream that was for me because now I just call him up, you know. He’s my pal, we kid around. It’s really been a great thing. I think he’s so great with grooves and keeping a singer/songwriter like me from collapsing into over emotionalism or relying too much on the words. Things like that. He tends to really lend these really emotional artists great structure and rhythm.

GL: You recorded Another Country about a year ago now …

TM: Yeah. Wow. Really? Was it really that long ago?

GL: Yeah, it was. And this was after spending some time in Paris writing and, as I’ve read, maybe getting away from some things in the U.S., maybe?

TM: Yeah. Running away.

GL: You kind of got away and wrote and lived in Paris for awhile, right?

TM: It was really just a fortuitous accident. I’d been on the road so long that I didn’t really know which way was up. I wasn’t ready to go home so I thought I’d take a vacation. I Googled “Paris, apartment, piano” and actually found a place. Once I got there I thought, you know, “this isn’t just a vacation.” I wasn’t expecting to write anything but it just started to happen. I was so happy! I called someone and said “I don’t think I’ll be on that plane!” [Laughs]

GL: One thing I’ve noticed about you - not just in your songs but also on the website for your radio show, which I’ll get to in a minute - is that you’re a really strong writer. You wrote a one sheet about your album that I really enjoyed and, well, you’re really just a strong writer. I sense some history there with you and written word …

TM: Oh, thank you. You know what, in the beginning, that was what I really wanted to be. Maybe when I grow up I’ll still be a writer. [Laughs.] I went to a writing program in college and I wrote short stories all the time. It’s always funny to me that I spend so much time in rock clubs in front of people when I’m really just an introverted homebody who’d rather be writing stories at the desk and typewriter up in the attic.

GL: Speaking with the writer theme, you interviewed Nick Hornby for a show you do called “The Spark with Tift Merritt,” a show that airs on NPR affiliat KRTS in Marfa, Texas. How did this show come about? I’ve read some things but, you know, it’s in Marfa, which is far from where you live …

TM: So how did this happen?

GL: Yeah, right. How did this happen and what are your plans for it?

TM: I sort of love how “The Spark” happened because everything about it has always been very natural and genuine. I was just lonely on the road and wanted to talk to other artists. So many people, while out on the road doing their work, don’t find time to really talk to the people that you meet. You just rush by each other. I really felt like I needed to talk to other artists about what they’re going through. I told this to a friend of mine who runs this beautiful hotel in Austin called Hotel San Jose. She’s something of a wild adventurer and is from Marfa … her family runs this cattle ranch out there. Marfa is this kind of bohemian art town, so it was really a perfect home for this idea. We were drinking wine and I told her I was lonely and told her my idea, so she said “let’s drive to Marfa tomorrow and tell ‘em about your show.” And because Marfa has this art affiliation, it really was perfect. We walked in their door unannounced and told them about the show and they said “sure.” Right now I only have time to do it once a month because I really like to research and throw myself into the people who I interview. Maybe one day it’ll grow; right now I’m just happy having license to corner these artists who I admire and learn from them.

GL: Is there anything right now scheduled? A wish list?

TM: My wish list is huge. Next month on “The Spark” I talked to this amazing classical pianist, Simone Dinnerstein. She’s sort of revolutionalizing the classical world right now. She’s amazing. I’d really like to have Emmylou Harris on the show. Sometimes I get very ambitious and want to get Robert Frank on the show. You know, it happens naturally, where maybe I’m in someone’s town and they happen to be home working in their studio and maybe I can go by. It’s all different kinds of artists - and that’s a big tree to pluck leaves from, so I really have my work cut out for me.

GL: The show is available online - just Google [Tift’s] name and you’ll find it very easily. You interview painters, poets, musicians, filmmakers.

TM: You name it.

GL: I can tell that you do your research, and I really think that’s the key …

TM: Yeah, I think so to. That’s part of the fascinating thing, studying an artist and trying to figure out the story they’re trying to tell - or what’s propelling them forward. It’s not something we can always put our finger on as a writer or reader. It’s a fascinating process.

GL: You just mentioned Emmylou, who you were just on the David Letterman show with. You also recently had your own segment on Letterman, too, right? On the 25th?

TM: Yeah, yeah.

GL: How was it being up there with Emmylou?

TM: Oh how do you think it was!? [Laughs.]

GL: She’s a hero of yours, right?

TM: Just being in the same room with her is amazing!

GL: I should mention that she has a new album out …

TM: It’s beautiful. It’s called All I Intended to Be …

GL: She has some originals on there …

TM: Yes, and her beautiful voice. It’s an amazing record. She’s definitely one of my heroes. It’s disorienting when you get to … I never know how to act, you know, I’m always like “Oh my gosh, this is my hero!”

GL: And I’ve noticed that in the media she always kind of gets written up as a sidekick - but she has eight or 10 classic album of her own …

TM: I think she sold over a million records. Her taste and her musicianship … and her choices. You know. I think she’s the queen! She’s no sideman in my book.

GL: Yeah, it’s unfortunate. I always tell people to check out her records because they’re really very good …

TM: Mmmm, hmmm!

GL: Getting back to you, a lot of people I know love your song “Good Hearted Man,” and I’ve seen other big reactions to some of your songs - reactions that really stand out. You’ve been nominated for prestigious awards and are always really, really well reviewed - I can’t say that enough …

TM: Oh no! Can we all just please knock on wood right now!

GL: Not that any of these things really matter, you know. I’m just curious because you don’t really have a huge signature hit album or song. How important is this kind of thing to you?

TM: Well it’s important to me because I have to eat and I’d like to pay the people who work for me better. I’m sort of … what I like about my career is that I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do and I’m gonna write what I mean and say what I say - that’s important to me. I can’t predict if that’s ever going to cross paths with commercial success. To a certain extent, the fact that I’m a working artist is alone a great deal of commercial success in my book.

GL: I’d read somewhere where Ryan Adams never wants to have a super-big hit. He doesn’t want to go out every night like Beck does and have to play that one song every night, like how Beck plays “Loser” at every show. So I guess that’s why I bring …

TM: That’s an interesting way to look at it. You always have a relationship with your songs or your material that evolves. You know, you read a letter to an old friend or boyfriend and feel so embarrassed. For me, I try to write in a way where a song won’t deteriorate over time - it’s going to stand on it’s own. Whether I’m singing a song every night or not, I don’t intend to be disposable with my own work.

GL: That’s a good way to put it. Are you on tour right now? Guess I should’ve checked, huh?

TM: No, don’t worry about it. Yeah, I’m on tour right now.

GL: You’re on tour and scheduled to play Indianapolis …

TM: I’m sort of constantly on tour right now.

GL: Ever since the album came out?

TM: Yeah, I can sort of count on two hands how many days I’ve been home since the album came out.

GL: And you still make home in North Carolina?

TM: No, no, no! I moved to New York City!

GL: Since when?

TM: Since October …

GL: You never told me that!

TM: [Laughs.] I’m sorry!

GL: It’s okay.

TM: I lived in North Carolina for a really long time. After being in Paris I really felt that the energy of the city was something that kept me from being lonely and made me feel like part of things. I lived on a farm in North Carolina - I wasn’t feeding the chickens or the goats or anything, but I was way out in the country, which was great, but there’s this start/stop-y thing that happens when you’re on tour all the time. It’s really hard when all the sudden you’re way out in the middle of nowhere. I think life gets this disjointed feeling - so we thought we would try to prevent that this time. Also, so much of our work and so many of the people we work with are here, so it’s really nice to see them every once and a while …

GL: What part of New York City are you in?

TM: Manhattan.

GL: Okay.

TM: Downtown. Downtown with the kids.

GL: Anything else going on for you right now?

TM: Isn’t that enough homework! [Laughs.] We just came back from Norway and went to Colorado.

GL: Yikes. [Laughs.]

TM: It’s crazy. We’re touring a lot and stopping to interview artists on the way - keeping our integrity in tact as much as we can … because that’s what we do.

GL: So are you always writing, even when on tour, or is that something that turns on and off?

TM: It’s not really something that turns on and off as much as it’s something that gets neglected sometimes - like going to the gym not as often as you should. I always try to write and I feel like where I am right now in my career I need to get used to writing on the road. It’s a question of … that way that the road is kind of fake - the way that the road kind of revolves around you. People clap for you. It’s not real. I try to keep that part of things so out of my writing that I haven’t quite figured out how to bring the road and writing together in the right way.

GL: Yeah, it does. And I should mention that you’ve been through quite a bit of change as of late - you moved to New York City and you’re on a new record label now. Do you think that living in New York City will change your writing or change the way you go about making your records?

TM: Well, it means that I can’t bang on the piano in the middle of the night …

GL: Yeah!

TM: That’s kind of a bummer. I don’t know. I haven’t figured out how New York is going to be, writing-wise. I have a lot of business stuff I do here, so I wonder if the business stuff is just going to be a shadow. I think New York is filled with so many amazing people doing amazing things that that energy can’t help but stir something in you. North Carolina has been a source of inspiration for me for a long time, but I got to the point where I’d feel weird when I went to the grocery store after writing and I’d be really out of it and knock the cereal over in the cereal isle. I was one of very few people doing my job, and I felt like that was a little bit lonely.

GL: I hope you keep writing about your albums. I really enjoyed the insight you offered about Another Country.

TM: Thank you.

GL: Thank you for taking time to talk to us.

TM: Thank you for doing the same!