This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen magazine #102 (October / November 2002). The magazine is available on newsstands and by subscription.

Tift Merritt
Country Rose
by Philip Van Vleck

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill has been a hotbed for musical talent for many years. The area has produced an eclectic array of bands that have achieved a national following. Southern Culture on the Skids, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Corrosion of Conformity, Mayflies USA, The Backsliders, Ben Folds Five, Whiskeytown, Superchunk, The Veldt, Regatta 69, and Dillon Fence are some of the bands that have emerged from the club scene on Tobacco Road in recent years.

Country-influenced singer/songwriter Tift Merritt is a Raleigh-based artist who, with her band, The Carbines, is poised to be become the latest buzz-worthy export from North Carolina. Merritt is a Raleigh native who has spent the last few years writing songs, performing relentlessly in central North Carolina, and building a huge regional fan base. Signed to Lost Highway Records in 2000 — the label that is also home to Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen, and Ryan Adams (another Raleigh native) — Merritt released her first album, Bramble Rose, in early June of this year.

Bramble Rose is a terrific debut project for Merritt. She's an exceptionally literate and moving songwriter with a voice that's already being compared to Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. The focus of Bramble Rose is Merritt's original material (she wrote every song on the album) and her truly memorable vocals. Merritt's primary inspiration is clearly country music, though other influences, including rock, modern folk, and even Southern gospel, are at work in her songwriting.

In recording the tracks, Merritt stuck mainly with her own band, which was a shrewd move. Her backing trio performs superbly on the CD, with a little help from Benmont Tench on piano and producer Ethan Johns on guitar.

In speaking with Merritt shortly before Bramble Rose was released, she was keenly aware that her dream was about to come true, for better or for worse.

She explained that she grew up in Raleigh and attended St. Timothy's High School, though she nearly ended up a resident of the Lone Star State. "My mom is from North Carolina; she grew up here," Merritt explained. "My dad is from Texas. She met my dad, and they got married and went to live in Texas, but my mom didn't like Texas at all. It's just a really different world. She left Texas with me when I was 2 and came back here, and my dad followed.

"I grew up with mom hating Texas and my dad loving Texas, which is actually a very good way to look at Texas," she laughed. "I do love Austin; it's kinda too good to be true. I always wind up sitting in some cool bar drinking Lone Star or a margarita and thinking, 'They live like this all the time.' "

Merritt absorbed a good deal of her love for music from her father, while her mother encouraged her to write. "My dad actually had some music aspirations of his own," she noted. "He was a folkie. He wanted to be Bob Dylan. What he always told me was that he didn't know how to write songs, and that was a problem. He's an amazing fingerpicker; he taught me how to fingerpick. My dad played by ear, and he could play piano, too. We'd ride around in the car singing Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan songs. He definitely taught me to trust my ears.

"My mom was always reading and giving me books and encouraging me to think and to say what I meant," she continued. "My mother did come from a very Southern family, and it was always in her mind to give me this kind of literary outlet. I can't imagine not having that instinct. Somewhere between having a big mouth and having an opinion and being passionate, she taught me that that was basically my engine."

This is an excerpt from an article in Dirty Linen #102 (Oct./Nov. '02). Read the full text in the magazine, available via subscription or on newsstands and in bookstores.