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Tift Merritt

Tift Merritt is a singer/songwriter on the Lost Highway record company. Her first album Bramble Rose is the best audiophile record I now have. Better than any Reference Recording or Mobile Fidelity. This recording was mastered by the master himself Doug Sax in his LA studio. First she is hard to define, sort of early Linda Ronstadt, but more alt.country style. The songs are vibrant, a couple of rousing rockers to boot (the Neighborhood in particular). Her voice is not as strong as some others, but her sincerity is up there, along with some fine inflections of her voice. The recording as I said is the finest recording as far as showing off your stereo rig. I actually had a couple startling instances where the sound came from the sides of the room, very eerie. Overall it is the best audiophile recording I now own. However it is not even close to being in my top 200 recordings of favorite music...but if you want to show off your stereo...
shubertmaniac
9 responses Add your response
edesilva
768 posts
 
I'll second Bramble Rose, and also note that just last week (I think), her second album was released--Tambourine. Haven't listened to it yet, however... It is sadly just sitting in my living room still in its wrapper...
loanofficer1
3 posts
 
I have Tift Merritt's recordings and love them both. Recently, my son turned me on to the singer songwriter Mindy Smith who is a little more country and a little less rock, more in the blue grass category like Emmie Lou Harris.
Her recent and only one is also incredibly well recorded. Reminds me of some of the Elliot Scheiner discs he engineered for Jennifer Warnes. I urge you to give her a listen
prpixel
876 posts
 
I stumbled across Bramble Rose about 2 months ago. Great album.
philefreak
423 posts
 
I found out about Tift at a concert in Asheville NC last fall. Bruce Cockburn,Emmie Lou Harris,Patsy Griffin,and Mary Chapin Carpenter were supposed to play at the Thomas Wolf Auditorium. When we arrived to hear the show, we were told Mary Chapin Carpenter couldn't make it. They had new girl for us to check out. Tift Merrit, She stoled the show. If you see her live you will not regret it! This show was just them four with nothing but guitars, no elecrics except for microphones. It was great. Tambourine is not as good to me as Bramble Rose but, I need to give it some more time. Most of my great disk take a litte time to work on me. If I like something suddenly, it most likely doesn't last.
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Good article on Tift & Tambourine in new issue of Tracks magazine.
If you like alt/country, alt/acoustic rock, World Cafe, etc. this mag is a great subscription...Cheers, Spencer
shubertmaniac OP
350 posts
 
The alt.country magazine that I picked up that recommended Tift was "No Depression". I also purchased her second CD, it is not nearly as good a recording and the sonics seem a
tad less palpable than the Bramble Rose recording.
wildoats
339 posts
 
Bramble Rose is great, music and recording. From what I've read here so far, Tambourine isn't as good. Is it more mainstream, poor songwriting, or what specifically is wrong with it?
shubertmaniac OP
350 posts
 
Wildoats: Nothing that grabs you by the throat and says this is great stuff. What can you about someone that who is not poor, not an alcoholic, does not or did not have an abusive relationship either way, And is educated. Not enough Hank, not enough sincerity, not enough school of hard knocks.
shubertmaniac OP
350 posts
 
Get home and lo and behold TAS does a review: 4 stars for music and 2 stars for sonics for Tift's latest recording. The sonics part is about right but 4 stars for the performance: if that is true then any retreaded Hank is 100 stars. In the same issue they give 4 stars to an anthology of the Animals. Tift 4 Animals 4 does not ring true to me.
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