Post by erik on Oct 18, 2012 8:56:40 GMT -5
My review of Tift's Traveling Alone at Amazon:
Ever since her 2002 debut album BRAMBLE ROSE, Tift Merritt has proven to be, for my money, the finest singer to come into the music scene in this century. BRAMBLE ROSE and its four successors (TAMBOURINE; ANOTHER COUNTRY; BUCKINGHAM SOLO; SEE YOU ON THE MOON) showed Tift, a longtime veteran of the North Carolina music scene, to be a truly great artist, with a unique and literary style of songwriting, and a breezy, intelligent, un-Autotuned voice that is solid for the alternative country/Americana genre she is generally put into, but also a love for the "old school" country-rock of Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, whose musical spirits have informed not only Tift but about four generations of very like-minded female country and roots-rock singers.
This tradition continues on her sixth album, TRAVELING ALONE, which she recorded with producer/engineer Tucker Martine (who worked with her on SEE YOU ON THE MOON in 2010) in her adapted hometown of Brooklyn. Even in the urban setting she recorded it in, there is a great deal of rusticity that is kind of a cross between her North Carolina roots and the Laurel Canyon sound of the early 1970s filtered through a 21st century alternative music sensibility, with a greater use of pedal steel (courtesy of Eric Heywood) than you'd find on a lot of mainstream country records. All eleven tracks, written by Tift herself, are brilliantly constructed and performed by her, but for me, the standout tracks in particular here are the title track itself, "Sweet Spot" (not to be confused with the similarly titled track on Linda's and Emmylou's WESTERN WALL), "Spring", and "To Myself". Additional help is accorded from Tift's longtime sideman Jay Brown on bass, as well as from John Coventino (of the alt-country group Calexico), and Andrew Bird, who harmonizes with Tift and plays violin on "Drifted Apart."
This, in short, is the sixth consecutive standout album for Tift. And as such, it is an unsurprising, but terrible, shame that Tift still cannot find her way onto corporate radio, country or otherwise, while Carrie Underwood's safe power anthems and Taylor Swift's teen-angst (from someone in her 20s!) and irritating vocal mannerisms dominate the airwaves. The lack of radio respect clearly hasn't hurt Tift in terms of her art, but it would be a great change of pace if this album could get some love. But then again, if Tift had to "dumb down" her approach to get that respect, she wouldn't be nearly the kind of great artist she is.
Regardless of what corporate radio bigwigs may think, I can't help but declare that TRAVELING ALONE will once again end up on my list of best albums for 2012. There are simply not enough great, or even merely good, female artists like Tift out there at the moment, which is why she is such a standout singer, regardless of genre. This, her sixth album, is one to be savored vicariously.
Ever since her 2002 debut album BRAMBLE ROSE, Tift Merritt has proven to be, for my money, the finest singer to come into the music scene in this century. BRAMBLE ROSE and its four successors (TAMBOURINE; ANOTHER COUNTRY; BUCKINGHAM SOLO; SEE YOU ON THE MOON) showed Tift, a longtime veteran of the North Carolina music scene, to be a truly great artist, with a unique and literary style of songwriting, and a breezy, intelligent, un-Autotuned voice that is solid for the alternative country/Americana genre she is generally put into, but also a love for the "old school" country-rock of Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, whose musical spirits have informed not only Tift but about four generations of very like-minded female country and roots-rock singers.
This tradition continues on her sixth album, TRAVELING ALONE, which she recorded with producer/engineer Tucker Martine (who worked with her on SEE YOU ON THE MOON in 2010) in her adapted hometown of Brooklyn. Even in the urban setting she recorded it in, there is a great deal of rusticity that is kind of a cross between her North Carolina roots and the Laurel Canyon sound of the early 1970s filtered through a 21st century alternative music sensibility, with a greater use of pedal steel (courtesy of Eric Heywood) than you'd find on a lot of mainstream country records. All eleven tracks, written by Tift herself, are brilliantly constructed and performed by her, but for me, the standout tracks in particular here are the title track itself, "Sweet Spot" (not to be confused with the similarly titled track on Linda's and Emmylou's WESTERN WALL), "Spring", and "To Myself". Additional help is accorded from Tift's longtime sideman Jay Brown on bass, as well as from John Coventino (of the alt-country group Calexico), and Andrew Bird, who harmonizes with Tift and plays violin on "Drifted Apart."
This, in short, is the sixth consecutive standout album for Tift. And as such, it is an unsurprising, but terrible, shame that Tift still cannot find her way onto corporate radio, country or otherwise, while Carrie Underwood's safe power anthems and Taylor Swift's teen-angst (from someone in her 20s!) and irritating vocal mannerisms dominate the airwaves. The lack of radio respect clearly hasn't hurt Tift in terms of her art, but it would be a great change of pace if this album could get some love. But then again, if Tift had to "dumb down" her approach to get that respect, she wouldn't be nearly the kind of great artist she is.
Regardless of what corporate radio bigwigs may think, I can't help but declare that TRAVELING ALONE will once again end up on my list of best albums for 2012. There are simply not enough great, or even merely good, female artists like Tift out there at the moment, which is why she is such a standout singer, regardless of genre. This, her sixth album, is one to be savored vicariously.
.. I can't add much to it, except to definitely recommend it and give props to Andrew Bird for his harmony vocals which have been compared to Roy Orbison (justifiably so)