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Tift Merritt
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| Tift Merritt | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 8, 1975 Houston, Texas, USA |
| Origin | Raleigh, North Carolina, United States |
| Genres | Folk Rock |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Voice Guitar Keyboards Harmonica |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | Lost Highway, Fantasy |
| Website | Official Website |
Tift Merritt (born January 8, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter. She has released two studio albums for Lost Highway Records and one for Fantasy Records. She has released six singles, one of which ("Good Hearted Man") has charted. Her 2004 album Tambourine earned her a Grammy Award and Americana Music Association nominations. The first single from her latest album Another Country also received AMA Award nominations and held the #1 slot on the Americana airplay chart for several weeks. Her live albums so far are Home Is Loud released in 2005 and Buckingham Solo released in 2009.
Contents |
Biography
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Merritt began her singing career while attending the prestigious Choate Rosemary Hall high school, where she performed the lead in the school's spring musical, Gypsy.
Merritt then her professional career playing small clubs in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. In 1998 she was part of a band called The Carbines, which released a single, "Jukejoint Girl" b/w "Cowboy", on the Oil Rig Recordings label. In 1999, she released a 7-song EP with the Two Dollar Pistols, led by John Howie, Jr. The EP featured two original songs and five covers.
In 2002, after signing with the Lost Highway label, Merritt released her debut album Bramble Rose. Her follow-up release, 2005's Tambourine, was produced by roots rock producer George Drakoulias and featured backing by Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell (of the Heartbreakers) and Don Heffington (of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band and Lone Justice). Tambourine was honored with a 2004 Country Album of the Year Grammy nomination. 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". It also produced her only chart single in "Good Hearted Man", which reached #60 on the country singles charts in the US.
Tift Merritt signed a new record contract with Fantasy Records on June 25, 2007 and recorded her third full-length studio album, Another Country, in L.A. with George Drakoulias producing in the summer of 2007. Another Country was released in Australia February 22, Norway February 25, February 26, 2008 in the U.S. and Canada.
Merritt is also a photographer; her first gallery exhibition, Other Countries, ran at the new Mahler Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina in May of 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. 1
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | US Heat | |||
| 2002 | Bramble Rose
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47 | — | — | |
| 2004 | Tambourine
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— | — | 21 | |
| 2008 | Another Country
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— | 156 | 1 | |
| "—" denotes the album failed to chart. | |||||
Live albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2005 | Home Is Loud
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| 2009 | Buckingham Solo
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EPs
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1999 | The Two Dollar Pistols with Tift Merritt
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Singles
| Year | Single | US Country | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | "Virginia, No One Can Warn You" | — | Bramble Rose |
| "Sunday" | — | ||
| 2003 | "Trouble Over Me" | — | |
| 2004 | "Good Hearted Man" | 60 | Tambourine |
| "Stray Paper" | — | ||
| 2008 | "Broken" | — | Another Country |
| "—" denotes the single failed to chart. | |||
Videos
- "Virginia, No One Can Warn You"
- "Good Hearted Man"
- "Broken"
- "Keep You Happy"