It’s hard to imagine anything shaking up songwriter Tift Merritt. Although her April 22 gig in town recently changed spaces (from the currently closed Gravity Lounge to the Music Resource Center), she’s dealt with bigger complications. Nearly missing a live album recording, for instance.
"You don’t know how glad I am to be here…I was kidnapped by a mad taxi driver," she jokes with her audience on Buckingham Solo, Merritt’s upcoming live album that draws from three stellar studio abums and adds a George Harrison cover ("I Live For You") and a new song ("Do Something Good") for good measure.
Throw in an ease with interviews—she hosts her own monthly radio chat, "The Spark," and has grilled the likes of writer Nick Hornby and musician Teddy Thompson without charring them—and Merritt comes across as unfazed as her Blue-period Joni Mitchell vocals and as emotionally undressed as the dozen songs on Buckingham Solo.
"People don’t always want to reveal themselves," she told Feedback during a brief interview this morning. "I do want to reveal myslf; that’s what my work is about." Feedback certainly wasn’t going to stop her; highlights after the photo.
Tift Merritt: A singer by any other name wouldn’t sound as sweet. Catch her at Music Resource Center on April 22. $15, doors at 7pm.
On being "kidnapped" by her cab driver in Buckingham: "The venue and the hotel were very close together, but I didn’t know how to walk there, and it was freezing. So we arranged for cab to take me—2 minutes. And all of a sudden he’s on the outskirts of town. And I kept saying to him, ‘I’m going to the Radcliffe Center.’ He was taking me to a town called ‘Radclive.’ So, I was really late for my own concert.”
On her favorite live album: "There’s a Neil Young record that blew my mind—the Live at Massey Hall one. I would say that’s probably my favorite live record. I would not be so bold as to say, ‘I’m trying to emulate Neil Young at Massey Hall,’ but I listened to that while I was driving through Texas and looking out the window…It was kind of exciting, in thinking about taking these songs back to their point of origin."
On vulnerability in interviews: "I think that, if I’m doing what I’m doing—putting myself out there—I’ve decided that I want to do it in the most honest way. I’m not really interested in presenting myself as a product—be it finished, or without imperfection, or rehearsed, static, overly molded. I don’t think the spotlight is that interesting a place. I think that being something more complete, or more rounded or real, is a lot more engaging."
