It was sort of a tradeoff, that a friend would go to Kathleen Edwards with me tonight, and I would go to Tift Merritt with him last night. Similar genre: young female songwriters oft-compared to Lucinda, Emmylou and the likes. Seemed like an even deal.
The everybodyfields were nice. I've been listening to them for a few weeks, and it's good, cry your eyes out, sobbing music. They seem to have that mastered, but I'd like to see what else they can do.
Now, the real thing:
So, although I'd been seeing and Tift Merritt banner ads some time, I'd also been ignoring them, and it wasn't until tickets were in hand for this show that I downloaded her latest album from eMusic.
If you've read any reviews of Another Country, you know they've been pretty lukewarm - identifying a couple good tracks, but mostly saying it was a disappointment follower to her previous work. Well, I'd never heard her other stuff, so I couldn't say that, but initially I didn't like much of it. It had a sound that was a little too perfectly produced. I didn't quite buy it. A few tracks grew on me pretty quickly though: mainly "Broken" and over all, "My Heart is Free." But, I still wasn't convinced, and wasn't sure how this big sound was going to fit in a little place like Schubas.
Well, not too worry, because Tift's tiny, with a comfortably awkward onstage banter, and so instead of being a diva, she kind of seemed more like your best friend putting on the most kick-ass karaoke performance in your favorite bar. She's fine on guitar, but stands out and seems at home when she's playing piano with all of the bounce and groove of Jo Ann Castle or Marcia Ball.
And maybe some of her songs are inspired by elders. Lots of comparisons have been made, but mostly to other female country vocalist. Going back to my favorite song from the album though, I hear Vietnam war-era rock influencing what is obviously a song about the battlefield. But where I'm hearing CCR and Jefferson Airplane, the song itself is about and previous-generation cousin of Merritt's dying in WWI France. An interesting parallel though, for a time when we are facing yet another overseas war.
So, while I went prepared for something nit quite my style, I really enjoyed myself, and would definitely catch her again sometime. Seriously though, watch out. Out of frustration at one point, she pitched a bum harmonica into the audience without quite enough warning. Luckily a very tall man to my right reached up and caught it with his freakishly long arms, or someone could have a nice little scalp lac.
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