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In
all her glory: Tift Merritt.
PHOTO:
Martin Benjamin
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Gracious
Angel
By
Mike Hotter
Tift
Merritt
WAMC
Performing Arts Studio, March 1
Blossoming music star Tift Mer ritt started her week with
a TV appearance in front of 10 million on The Tonight
Show, but displayed an endearing lack of pretense or “divadom”
during her 90-minute solo performance at the Linda Norris
Auditorium in front of a much more intimate crowd last Saturday
evening. The Albany stop was the first in a worldwide tour
promoting her new album, Another Country, a collection
written during a self-imposed songwriting sabbatical in Paris.
While her recorded material carries all the usual trappings
of the alt-country world (pedal steel guitars and twanging
Telecasters), Merritt singing alone at the Linda’s grand piano
for show-opener “Ain’t Looking Closely” brought to mind the
classic pop songcraft of Brill Building-era Carole
King. As she switched over to a big red Gibson guitar for
the chugging and pleasant strummer “Something to Me,” one
was immediately struck by the purity of Merritt’s wondrous
voice. When she wisecracked to the reverent attendees, “You’re
so well behaved,” I thought we would be in for more of the
same from her, pleasant but uninvolving. The singer instead
delivered a stealthy haymaker, strapping on a harmonica and
placing herself and her guitar out of microphone range for
a heart-melting “Hopes Too High.” It was clear we had a singing,
songwriting angel in our midst, and the audience settled in
as if to bask in the radiance cascading from the front of
the room.
Merritt was absolutely thrilled to have a dog in attendance
(though it was an on-the-clock guide dog), and encouraged
some shy concertgoers to sit up front for a better view. But
Merritt’s songs weren’t all puppies and valentines. “Laid
a Highway” was a lament for the dying hometowns of her native
North Carolina, while “My Heart Is Free” took up the perspective
of an ancestor who died in the First World War, noting between
lines evoking gunshots and the hands of Jesus that it “seems
it’s always for a few men that so many of us die.”
Dusty Springfield would have rushed to cover the bluesy growl
of “Good Hearted Man,” while Merritt brought “Morning Is My
Destination” to a heady outpouring of soul that literally
sent a chill down my spine.
Merritt had a hard time leaving the stage—mainly because the
audience wouldn’t let her. We Northeasterners have had our
butts kicked by another long winter, and Merritt’s prodigious
talent served as a most welcome respite from it. Surely she’ll
be back. (Right, Howard?)
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